Local displays to mark 215 dead Indigenous children found in B.C.

Flags are flying at half-mast at municipal, provincial, territorial and federal buildings across the country, including in Waterloo Region.

But there are calls to do more to honour the 215 children whose remains were found at a former residential school in B.C.

It's just one of the displays being seen in Waterloo Region.

Another continues to grow at The Healing of the Seven Generations on Frederick Street in Kitchener.

Shoes, stuffed animals and orange shirts are being handed out and put on display at the front of the building, with residents coming by to also say a prayer.

“It's probably going to be a sombre day,” said Donna Dubie, executive director for The Healing of the Seven Generations, whose father went to a residential school for nine years.

“I grew up with stories,” she told 570 NEWS, “My father was at the Mush Hole (the Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford)…one of the stories that he repeatedly said — because it was ingrained in his head — the horrific things that they made them do.”

“There was him and a couple other young boys, around 10, 11, 12-years-old. Some of the girls got pregnant by some of the workers at the Mush Hole, and they had to take their baby, when it was alive, and put it in the furnace in the basement of the residential school.”

Dubie said her father had to live with that story his entire life, adding they've been sharing stories this entire time, but it seems like “now that there's evidence of it, it's being believed.”

She said these children would've grown up to be grandmothers and grandfathers, and pass knowledge down through the generations, but can't.

Dubie said she knows Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the call to lower flags, but noted the government needs to do more for the First Nations community than that.

She also alluded to some of the inequities facing First Nations, “the highest number of incarcerated men and women, they're the highest individuals that are suffering with health ailments.”

“People think we get everything for free,” Dubie said, “And it's unfortunate that people that are on Ontario Works and ODSP get better benefits than we do.”

She said those are just a couple of examples where the government needs to “step up and catch up” to do the things to honour the original people of the land.

Dubie said anyone looking to learn more can either check resources online, or even ask them questions.

A vigil will be held on a couple of fronts in the area.

On Tuesday, one is planned to start on the steps of the Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate in Guelph at 6:30 p.m.

Meantime, a vigil will happen at Victoria Park in Kitchener on Thursday at 7:00 p.m.

– With files from The Canadian Press

Jackson Stadelbauer, 3, is one of the many who have shown up here to drop off items. pic.twitter.com/5IE2etcf3l

— Mark Paré (@MarkLPare) May 31, 2021