A special crosswalk was unveiled in St. Albert Tuesday to honour residential school survivors and children who never made it home.
Every Child Matters is painted across the pavement at the intersection of St. Anne Street and Perron Street.
Every element of artist Karlliea Wood’s design has an important meaning.
“I chose a child and the bear to represent courage and healing and strength, and the children are on their way to school,” Wood explained. “The footprints really signify that the bear is guiding them after they passed.
“I chose to have the braids, because that hair is so important in our culture and it was taken away when they went to school.”
Wood’s design was selected as part of a contest.
“Surreal to know I did this, I worked on this,” Wood said.
Rhonda Wood-Viscarra is the project lead for the Every Child Matters crosswalk and Wood’s mom.
“It’s beautiful and it has so much meaning and I couldn’t be prouder of my daughter,” Wood-Viscarra said.
“I’m really just thankful that after almost two years we’re able to have it down, to have those crucial conversations in St. Albert to discuss the true history.”
St. Albert had two residential schools: Youville and Edmonton Poundmaker.
“St. Albert has that little bit of extra work to do in many ways to make amends for the residential school era,” St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron said.
“This is one of my most impactful moments as mayor working with the community, working with my staff to make sure we are always walking in the right steps.”
Wood hopes her art resonates with people.
“I want them to know and be curious about it… learn about it so that way people can start to heal and move on,” Wood said.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is on Sept. 30.
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The man who adopted me as a child and his brother told me many times of their escaping from a BIA in CA. They’d make it home only to be caught, be caught along the road, even made it to an aunt’s house in WA only to be recaptured because their aunt turned them in. While there, however, Dad had the wherewithal to steal a copy of the birth certificate of an older cousin with the same name. Upon their next escape, they went to a city they knew well, Oakland. Uncle Bob reversed his first and middle names and hid among the local chapter of a motorcycle gang. Dad joined the Marines and was fighting in Korea, need the end of his enlistment before anyone caught on that he was a minor. Can you imagine living in conditions you found so horrific that the Hell’s Angel’s and a war zone felt like an improvement?