Summary:
No provincial or territorial government has commissioned and installed a residential schools monument, though some have made plans to do so.
The Call to Action:
We call upon provincial and territorial governments, in collaboration with Survivors and their organizations, and other parties to the Settlement Agreement, to commission and install a publicly accessible, highly visible, Residential Schools Monument in each capital city to honour Survivors and all the children who were lost to their families and communities.
Analysis:
No provincial or territorial government has commissioned and installed a residential schools monument, though some have made plans to do so.
Winnipeg and Whitehorse are the only capital cities in Canada to have installed a residential schools monument, neither commissioned by government.
In May 2014, a stone monument to honour residential school survivors was unveiled in Winnipeg near the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. The monument was a gift from a member of St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Winnipeg.
In November 2012, an 11-metre memorial totem pole was erected in downtown Whitehorse. Each wood chip from the totem’s carving represents a life affected by residential school. The memorial was built with a $50,000 grant from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Critics say, however, there is not enough signage to explain the significance of the totem.
In January 2021, the Saskatchewan government announced plans to build a permanent monument to honour residential school survivors at Government House in Regina. It said Lt-Gov. Russ Mirasty would speak with residential school survivors, their families and elders during the winter and construction details of the monument will be shared after the discussion process.
Meanwhile, the City of Edmonton and the Province of Alberta were in agreement in 2017 that a memorial monument should be installed in the capital city. None has been built.
The Indian Residential School Survivor Legacy project, a collaboration between Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre, the Province of Ontario and the City of Toronto, is planned to consist of a “teaching, learning, sharing and healing space” at Nathan Phillips Square outside Toronto City Hall centred around a sculpture.
In 2018, Ontario had committed $1.5 million over three years; the City of Toronto had committed $500,000. The overall cost of the project is expected to be around $5.2 million, with the remainder being fundraised.
Many other non-capital cities and communities have either built or plan to build memorial monuments.