Our organization felt it was important to capture this reaction from our community, so we had photographer Dave Conlin take photographs of all the items in the memorial over several months.

And thanks to funding received from the St. Albert Community Foundation, we are making these photographs available online for everybody to view. A selection of photos is available beneath to view, with the whole collection to view from our archives database.

Statement from Celina Loyer, Aboriginal Programmer at Arts and Heritage St. Albert: As an intergenerational survivor of Residential Schools, I was very touched when I saw the memorials that were left at the Healing Garden after the unmarked graves in Kamloops were made public. We knew that the children were there. Now other Canadians cannot deny what our relatives have been saying for years. Residential Schools were traumatic. It is important to me to see that people are beginning to understand the truths of Canadian history, all of Canadian history. This is the beginning of the Truth being told, and will lead to real Reconciliation.