SHOES FOR HEALING
Ronalda Vandale, a member of the Muskoday First Nation, plans to mark National Indigenous People's Day by tying 215 pairs of shoes to a Muskoday First Nation bridge as a tribute to the children whose remains were found at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., and all the youth lost to Indigenous communities.
Ronalda Vandale shaved her braids just as they grew back.
The Muskoday First Nation woman first cut them when her mother, a residential school survivor, died 10 years ago. The second time was for her son, lost to an opioid overdose in Vancouver 11 months ago.
Their lives were with Vandale, who is a COVID-19 nurse, when she heard the news out of Kamloops, B.C. As she saw Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announce the discovery of the remains of 215 children in unmarked graves at a nearby residential school, Vandale thought of her son, Robert Forrest.
The organization Moms Stop the Harm paid tribute to opioid deaths by tying shoes to a Vancouver overpass. An idea occurred to her: tying 215 pairs of shoes to a Muskoday First Nation bridge as a tribute to the lost children on June 21, National Indigenous Peoples Day.
“It's so hard to grieve when you can't have those things that we rely on so greatly. No elders, no ceremonies, no wake services,” she said. “People are suffering, and they're hurting from what happened in Kamloops.”
After posting a call for shoes, she received an outpouring of support from community members. As of Friday, she had five bags containing about 100 pairs, with more to come. Chief Ava Bear of Muskoday First Nation, the Elder's Lodge, and a teacher at the First Nation's school also contacted her, voicing their support and asking how to get involved.
The memorial is to be held on a Highway 3 bridge on Muskoday First Nation, about 16 kilometres south of Prince Albert.
Vandale plans to provide a pair of moccasins for Chief Bear to hang. A separate ceremony was held in a park in the First Nation on Saturday, including an elder, a prayer, a smudging ceremony, and a drum group, she said.
“I thought it would just be me out there hanging shoes,” Vandale said.
The memorial hasn't been the only tribute in Saskatchewan this month as flags have been lowered to half-mast across the province. Tributes included Lac La Ronge Indian Band launching 215 birchbark canoes on June 4 after keeping a four-day sacred fire.
St. John's Anglican Cathedral in Saskatoon sounded its chimes 215 times. Closer to Vandale, community members placed 215 pairs of shoes at Prince Albert City Hall.
Vandale said tributes like hers fill an important gap made by COVID -19 restrictions, which left many community members to grieve individually. She doesn't think it lessens the grief — it may even make it more pronounced — but she hopes that it helps those mourning carry it together.
“Especially as an Indigenous woman, we're supposed to be the leaders in our communities, to be strong. But I just didn't feel it. I just couldn't,” she said.
“Those ceremonies and those protocols help us. We heal through all those things, to be OK, to walk with our own grief.”
Resources are available for survivors and those seeking emotional support in the wake of recent events. The toll-free, 24-hour Indian Residential School Crisis Line is 1-866-925-4419.