The Pont Mauril Belanger (Mattawa River) Bridge was decorated with orange ribbons this morning to honour residential school children.
Recently, the remains of 215 children were discovered in Kamloops, B.C., followed by the discovery of another 751 unmarked graves at the Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan.
See: A look at the residential-school system in Canada
“Obviously, our community is an Algonquin First Nation Community and we’re in support of the children being found across Canada at the Indian Residential Schools,” Chief Clifford Bastien said.
“And that’s the reason we decorated the bridge this morning with orange ribbon.”
About twenty volunteers helped to decorate the bridge, which took about an hour, Chief Bastien explained. “We had great volunteers,” on the project.
The bridge was reduced to one lane this morning from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. with Mattawa’s public works helping to facilitate traffic.
Chief Bastien mentioned there will be upcoming events, “probably a march, and some kind of vigil,” to continue honouring the victims of residential schools.
See: Bike ride honours survivors of residential schools
See: Canada's tragic residential-school reckoning could be grim harbinger for U.S.
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
