Residents gathered Monday afternoon (May 31st, 2021) in Pembroke to honour the 215 Indigenous children found at a former residential school in British Columbia.
About 200 shoes were laid at the steps of the St. Columbkille’s Cathedral in Pembroke, Ontario.
Event organizer Duane Aucoin says the Catholic Church is the only one who hasn’t apologized for their role in residential schools and they want that to change.
Aucoin says Pembroke has surprised him with the support they’ve shown.
Aucoin, who is a Tlingit from Teslin, Yukon, says his mother was lucky enough to survive one of the Catholic residential churches, but many others weren’t.
The movement in Pembroke was one of many across the Ottawa Valley as residents remember the lives of the 215 Indigenous children whose bodies were found.
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Pembroke honouring Indigenous children found at former residential school in B.C.