Grade 7 and 8 students in Vermilion Bay will embark on a 25 kilometre walk Thursday from the McIntosh Indian Residential School memorial site back to Lillian Berg School.
They are raising awareness and funds for the Walk for Chanie Wenjack.
The Anishinaabe boy ran away from a local residential school at the age of 12 in an attempt to return to his home in Marten Falls and subsequently died from hunger and exposure to the weather.
His death sparked national attention and the first inquest into the treatment of Indigenous children in Canadian residential schools.
Emily Smith, Joella Robinson and Berkley Delorme are students at Lillian Berg School and they shared their thoughts with CKDR News on why this walk is so important.
Smith says it’s important for people to know Chanie’s story because he wasn’t just another child lost to the Residential School system.
“Chanie was our age and his school was in our area. It’s important for people to think ‘What if that was my child?’ We need to know our countries history, even if it’s a dark history, so we can learn from what happened in the past and keep that history from repeating.”
Robinson says “I felt that it is important to do this walk so that we can have a knowledge of Chanie Wenjack and all the children who died in Residential Schools. Another reason that this is important to do this walk is that it could help raise awareness of all that happened so we can make sure something like that doesn’t happen again.”
Delorme adds “I feel this is important to take part in because it is raising awareness for what happened to the children who went to Residential Schools and how many of them had to go there just because how they lived and what they believed in.”
Shannon Elliott is a Grade 7/8 teacher at Lillian Berg.
Elliott stresses “I can ask students read information about Residential Schools and watch videos and talk about the history and its lasting impacts and those are all good things and those are the things we’ve done in class. But doing this walk in honour of Chanie is something they’ll always remember.”
She adds “The physical act of walking in the elements similar to Chanie and getting a feeling for the distance he went, gives us a bit more of an understanding of just how determined he was to get back to his family. Starting from the McIntosh site I think brings more awareness that this history is right in our own back yard. I think this experience and the lessons embedded in it is something that will stick with the students forever.”
To make a donation, visit https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/the-gord-downie-chanie-wenjack-fund/p2p/walk-for-wenjack/team/grade-78s-walk-for-wenjack/
For more information on the Walk for Wenjack, visit https://walkforwenjack.ca/
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