Totem pole tribute to residential school victims arrives in Vancouver

Totem pole tribute for residential school victims arrives A monument to children who died in residential schools arrived in Burrard Inlet Wednesday.

On National Indigenous Peoples Day, a pole carved as a tribute to children who died in residential schools received an escort into Burrard Inlet from HMCS Edmonton and a Canadian Coast Guard hovercraft.

The 5.5-metre pole arrived at Vancouver’s Canada Place on Wednesday and is the vision of Kwakwaka'wakw artist Stanley Hunt, a master carver from Port Hardy.

The orange and black work prominently features a raven on top, while the rest reveals the faces of dozens of children.

"All those children had different stories, different faces and different characters," Hunt said.

After being displayed in downtown Port Hardy, the monument was loaded onto a truck on June 15 and driven to a number of different communities on Vancouver Island.

At each stop, local First Nations held ceremonies to honour the children who did not survive their time in residential school.

Hunt said he was first compelled to create the tribute two years ago after the Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced the discovery of 215 possible unmarked children's graves at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.

"They were unmarked. There was no evidence of them until recently—the last couple of years," Hunt said. "They needed to have a voice. They needed to become what they might have become without this happening to them."

The pole took nearly 11 months to complete and Hunt received help from other artists.

The search is still underway for a permanent home to display the monument.

In the meantime, it has provided a focal point for Canadians who wish to reflect on the true history of the country as they mark National Indigenous Peoples Day.