The rainbow connection
The Indigenous blessing of the Queen’s Park School two-spirit, rainbow crossing was a message of love and acceptance brought home by the children who were there to witness it.
Representatives of Okanagan Skaha School District 67, City of Penticton and the Penticton Indian Band joined the elementary students to celebrate the colourful Power Street symbol in front of the school.
PIB Elder Grace Greyeyes performed the blessing and then cut the rainbow ribbon to officially open it.
“I thanked the creator for this day,” she said. “I also thanked the families, all of you, for the children that walk on this because they will be proud to say one day that they witnessed this.
“It’s an honour to come and bless this walkway, it’s been a long time coming.”
The elder also had words of advice for the person(s) responsible for vandalizing the symbol of acceptance less than 24 hours after it was completed late last month.
“Whoever has done this, I hope that they hear what they did was wrong and they need to stand up and own it and apologize for what they did to this,” she said.
In addition to the tire marks left on the asphalt artwork, there were also a number of “vile” comments about its placement on social media.
A joint statement issued afterwards by the PIB, school district and City said for the crossing to be a true symbol there needs to be a condemnation of bullying and intolerance.
In spite of the vandalism, the ceremony was all about the positive aspect and moving forward for the sake of the kids.
“This is really representing inclusion, diversity, it’s really about love and kindness and that is a universal language that children have from birth,” said Nicole Simons, the former Queen’s Park Grade 1 teacher who spearheaded the project last year.
“We need to have our children, our youth, and our families coming to our schools knowing that it’s a safe space and they need to have visual representation and this (crossing) is where we start.
“We had non-binary children in our school last year and same-sex families and this (visual) in our community was lacking and there were many conversations about how we could make all of our children of those families more comfortable at school.”
PIB Chief Greg Gabriel directed his comments to the many students who were sitting behind the school’s fence watching the proceedings.
“I really want to acknowledge and pay tribute to the children for what they’re doing today,” he said. “What you’re doing is a way of making our community a better place to live for everyone.
“I really want to thank you. You are an inspiration to other children and other communities. There’s enough hate in our world these days.”
School superintendent Todd Manuel had words of praise for the kids.
“Being here and looking at our students, it shows us that great things happen when we listen to you,” he said. “We’re so proud of you. So thank you all for being here and being witnesses to this event.”