A group of 12 Pelican Narrows residents left for Ottawa on Aug. 2. (Honoring Our Children Journey/Facebook)

By Derek Cornet

healing continues

From Pelican Narrows to Ottawa: Residents embark on five week awareness journey

Aug 13, 2021 | 5:00 PM

Motivated by the discovery of unmarked graves at former residential schools, a group of 12 from Pelican Narrows are biking all the way to Ottawa.

The group left the northern community on Aug. 2 and have taken turns riding bikes to Canada’s capital ever since. They have so far travelled through the communities of Creighton, Flin Flon, La Pas, Man. and this afternoon reached Ashern, Man.

Organizer Veronique McCallum expects the group will reach Winnipeg by Saturday.

The group reached Ashern, Man. on Friday afternoon. (Submitted photo/Veronique McCallum)

“There’s only two working bikes at the moment, but once we reach Winnipeg, we will be purchasing a few more bikes,” she said. “This is for creating awareness about the residential school system and what the government did. It’s to honour all of the lives that were lost to the residential school system and to honour the survivors that came out of there.”

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So far, the riders have travelled approximately 700 kilometres with another 2,300 km before they reach Ottawa. McCallum is still working out the details for when they arrive, but she wants to make a stop at Parliament Hill.

McCallum explained the residential school system left intergenerational trauma that is still experienced today. She’s a residential school survivor and she said many others in her family were also forced to attend those schools.

“By doing this, it’s making a change for the people,” McCallum said. “Not just only us, but for the people who follow us. We want to help everybody who we come into contact with because this is for everybody.”

By coming together and supporting each other, McCallum said First Nations will be able to heal and that’s what the group’s journey is all about. Those interested can follow the group’s progress on their Facebook page.

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation Commission identified there being at least 3,200 unmarked graves throughout Canada, but more than 1,000 have already been located at just a handful of former school sites. For most of the history of the schools, the practice was not to send the bodies of students who died at schools to their home communities.

Based on records, the TRC estimates at least 4,100 children died at those schools, but the number is likely much higher.

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @saskjourno