Pipe ceremony held at Calgary City Hall to start planning a permanent residential school memorial

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

A pipe ceremony was held at Calgary's City Hall on Thursday to mark a commitment from the city to work with Indigenous communities to create a permanent memorial for residential school victims.

In recent months, it has been estimated that more than 1,000 potential unmarked gravesites have been located at former residential schools in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, prompting a national reckoning.

The steps outside City Hall display hundreds of shoes, teddy bears and flowers in a memorial that was established by Indigenous communities in honour of the children who did not return home from residential schools.

However, the memorial has weathered storms and vandalism — and the city says that eventually it will have to be removed.

"We know that this can't be here forever, and particularly as winter comes," Mayor Naheed Nenshi said, gesturing to the shoes.

"And we hope that we'll have a permanent memorial, in a meaningful location, to make sure that [Canadians] never, ever forget."

Ceremony represents start of a path forward

Conceptualizing a permanent memorial has to be done in the right way, Nenshi said, and so it won't be done quickly.

He said discussions about where it is, what it will be, and how people can interact with it must be held in a way that allows everyone's voice to be heard, with elders and knowledge-keepers ushering the process along.

"You listen to the elders," Nenshi said. "But I know the elders, too, want to make sure that they have heard from a wide variety of people as well."

Harold Horsefall, an issues strategist with the city's Indigenous relations office, said the ceremony was held to represent the start of determining the path forward for the memorial.

The shoes and teddy bears will be left until a decision is made on the way forward, he said.

"What we're commemorating is a historical truth," Horsefall said. "It's just more important we get it right, and do it once."

Bear Clan Patrol Calgary wants permanent shoe memorial

Members of Bear Clan Patrol Calgary said they would be working with the city on the memorial — but would like the shoe memorial at City Hall to become permanent.

"The Bear Clan Patrol, along with the Indigenous elders and matriarchs, and residential school survivors and the community, want to see the organic shoe memorial that started on the steps at City Hall to stay," Yvonne Henderson said.

"To be a constant reminder of the children who didn't return home from residential schools."

Henderson that if the shoes need to be moved to a safe location to avoid vandalism and damage, it should to be done carefully.

"This is not just shoes, this is like.… How would you move the memory of a loved one that you never got to say goodbye to? How would you move the ashes of a loved one, the body of a loved one?" she said.

"We have to honour those memories with these shoes, and we have to treat them with the utmost respect."

Support is available for anyone affected by their experience at residential schools, and those who are triggered by these reports.

A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for residential school survivors and others affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.

Do you know of a child who never came home from residential school? Or someone who worked at one? We would like to hear from you. Email our Indigenous-led team investigating the impacts of residential schools at [email protected] or call toll-free: 1-833-824-0800.