Laura Tenhagen brought her three young children to the steps of Algoma University Sunday morning, where a collection of shoes is growing in order to memorialize the 215 children whose remains were found at a former residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia.
There were roughly 100 pairs of shoes placed at the steps of the former Shingwauk Indian Residential School as of Sunday morning. Flags at the university were noticeably at half-mast.
“It’s just heartbreaking,” she said, fighting back tears. “We wanted to come and lay shoes and pay tribute to those children that lost their lives.”
Lise Harrison, who works for Garden River First Nation and has Indigenous family members, solemnly laid down pairs of used shoes that she found through social media.
“I just thought as a mother how devastating that would be to even go through that, and the children, not knowing what’s happening to them through the whole experience,” Harrison said.
The impromptu memorial began Saturday afternoon with Celeste Maurer, a member of Beaverhouse First Nation, a landless First Nation headquartered in Kirkland Lake.
“I heard the news about what happened, and being Indigenous myself, it really affected me,” said Maurer, speaking to SooToday Sunday morning. “I just remember that whole day - anytime it was brought up, I would find myself crying about it.”
“I didn’t know what to do. I knew I wanted to do something to show respect, and to remember all the children that were found. I saw that in B.C. they had placed shoes on the art gallery step, and I thought maybe we should do something like that here.”
It’s believed the 215 deaths at the residential school in Kamploops are undocumented, although a local museum archivist is working with the Royal British Columbia Museum to see if any records of the deaths can be found.
The school was once the largest in Canada’s residential school system.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many more, and I believe that every school should be searched, and it should be brought to everybody’s attention. The history should be brought back, and people need to know about it and that it happened - and that we are still affected by it today,” Maurer said.
It’s not lost on the people placing shoes on the steps of Algoma University that the site has a dark history.
“I think Sault Ste. Marie, we have our own history to pay tribute to as well, and it reminds us of the history - the local history - and that we’re not immune to what happened in B.C.,” said Tenhagen, who planned on taking her children to the graveyard behind the university where former Shingwauk students are buried. “It happened here in our own city, and I think it reminds of that as well.”
The City of Sault Ste. Marie will lower its flags at Ronald A. Irwin Civic Centre for 215 hours beginning Monday out of respect for the 215 children discovered.
More than 4,100 Indigenous children are listed on a national residential school student death register, according to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.
A national residential school crisis line has been established to provide support to former students and their families. The 24-hour crisis line can be accessed at 1-866-925-4419.
- with files from The Canadian Press