Since 2021, the steps outside Calgary city hall have been home to a makeshift memorial honouring children who never made it home from residential schools. The small pairs of shoes, toys, and stuff animals are a poignant reminder of history to all who pass by. But, come Friday, the memorial will have a new, more permanent home in the city. <\/p>\n
Doreen Healy, a residential school survivor, says the creation of a permanent memorial is a step in the right direction. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m part of that whole residential school survivor story\u2026so it is good that this city is recognizing and is putting that memorial, but I have other thoughts,\u201d she told CityNews. <\/p>\n
At the cost of $7.5 million \u2018The Wandering Spirit\u2019 memorial will have a permanent location at The Confluence, two kilometres from its original spot at city hall. <\/p>\n
Despite her appreciation for the memorial, Healy is concerned the money could help Indigenous Calgarians in other ways. <\/p>\n
\u201cI see the $7 million dollars be put to better use\u2026 It\u2019s good to learn about and hear about the past but what\u2019s more important to me is doing something for our people today, just like the housing that was announced,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Healy is referring to the city\u2019s Indigenous Housing Program which awarded $33 million to 16 Indigenous nations and Indigenous-led non-profit organizations\u00a0to deliver to up to 379 new\u00a0non-market homes\u00a0for Indigenous Calgarians; taxpayer money that Ward 14 Coun. Landon Johnson questions. <\/p>\n
\u201cGoing forward, can we reduce taxpayer money towards truth and reconciliation while still forwarding truth and reconciliation?\u201d he said Tuesday. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe city should respect what the elders want and it\u2019s an Indigenous gathering place at The Confluence where they can gather and they can call our home\u2026 It\u2019s where our hearts will be,\u201d Healy added. <\/p>\n
The transfer ceremony will begin outside the Municipal Building at 10 a.m. and the walk will start at 10:30 a.m., where community members will carry 215 tobacco ties to The Wandering Spirit at The Confluence.<\/p>\n
A temporary memorial will be set up until construction of the permanent memorial starts in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since 2021, the steps outside Calgary city hall have been home to a makeshift memorial honouring children who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-544681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}