Regina family plants garden honouring victims of Regina residential school
A Regina family planted a garden to honour the victims of a Regina residential school and educate the public about the reconciliation process.
Chantelle Payot created the “Honouring Memories, Planting Dreams Truth and Reconciliation Garden” to remember the lives lost at the Regina Indian Industrial School.
Payot said the garden stemmed from a project for a course she is taking on treaty teachings.
“We had to come up with sort of an artistic, creative project at the end and I thought I would tie it into something that I’m passionate about,” she said.
The garden features red hearts with the confirmed names and ages of some of the children printed on them. Other hearts remain blank for the children who haven’t been identified.
One of the hearts dedicated to a child killed at the Regina Indian Industrial School made by Talulah Messner. (Mackenzie Read/CTV News)
One of the hearts dedicated to a child killed at the Regina Indian Industrial School made by Talulah Messner. (Mackenzie Read/CTV News)
It also has QR codes posted on the signs that bring up information on the history of residential schools in the area and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls for Action.
“I think it’s really important to have these and recognize the children who didn’t have the perfect childhood and were taken away from their families at such a young age,” Talulah Messner, Payot’s step-daughter who made the hearts and signs, said.
Payot believes that reconciliation work is like tending a garden.
“It takes constant care, attention and compassion to carry out those calls to action,” Payot said.
She and two of her colleges also took a treaty walk on the school grounds in May and have been doing research on the area.
Other people with plots in the garden said they are impressed with the thought and dedication into the increased education on residential schools.
“As an Indigenous person who garden here, seeing this display makes me feel welcome and makes me feel like it’s a safe space,” Kim Belhumeur said.
“This has not been touched and to me [that] is very important. It just shows the respect that the gardeners here have,” James Sather, another gardener, added.
Payot would like people come to the garden and use it as a learning tool. She also hopes more of the hearts can spread through the community garden space as the gardening season progresses.
“I’m a settler on Treaty 4 lands and this is my contribution to those calls to action for the TRC,” said Payot.
The garden is located at Payot’s 13th Avenue community garden plot.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
It's no secret that spring can be a tumultuous time for Canadian weather, and as an unseasonably mild El Nino winter gives way to summer, there's bound to be a few swings in temperature that seem out of the ordinary. From Ontario to the Atlantic, though, this week is about to feel a little erratic.
What a urologist wants you to know about male infertility
When opposite sex couples are trying and failing to get pregnant, the attention often focuses on the woman. That’s not always the case.
He replaced Mickey Mantle. Now baseball's oldest living major leaguer is turning 100
The oldest living former major leaguer, Art Schallock turns 100 on Thursday and is being celebrated in the Bay Area and beyond as the milestone approaches.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.