Tsleil-Waututh Community is inviting the community to be part of a 8.5 kilometres walk from the former site of St. Paul’s Residential School, now the site of St. Thomas Aquinas Regional Secondary School to Tsleil-Waututh Nation reserve in North Vancouver.
It will take place on September 30, between 10 am and 1 pm.
The Tsleil-Waututh Nation community will take part in a pilgrimage to commemorate the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Walking from the site of the former St. Paul’s Residential School, community members, TWN staff, and invited guests will walk 8.5 kilometers back home to the Tsleil-Waututh reserve, located along Dollarton Highway.
Members taking part will be wearing orange shirts and carrying signage to acknowledge Tsleil-Waututh Nation residential school survivors and ancestors.
The purpose of the Pilgrimage is to honour all Residential and Day School survivors and loved ones who have passed while creating space for healing for our Tsleil-Waututh Nation community. By retracing the actual path that our relatives took every day to and from St. Paul’s Residential School, the nation will be honouring all Tsleil-Waututh children who had to walk this path to and from “school.”
The public is invited to create a wall of protection and line up on the sidewalks along Main St. / Cotton Dr. at Park and Tilford or 3rd St W. from St. Andrews Ave. to Chesterfield Ave.
That’s the walk my late father did when he was booted out of that institution.