City of Calgary to partner with Fort Calgary for permanent memorial to residential school victims

The City of Calgary has announced that it will collaborate with the Fort Calgary Preservation Society to establish a permanent Indian Residential School Memorial at Fort Calgary to honour children who attended residential schools.

According to a statement released by the city, Fort Calgary will work with the city to build a memorial close to the confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers. While a marker has been placed at the site, the exact location of the permanent memorial still needs to be finalized.

 "As we move along a path that includes both truth and reconciliation, our actions must come from the heart and reflect a commitment to do better into the future," said Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek.

"This permanent memorial will be a space to honour residential school survivors, their families and the thousands of children who never returned. It will be a reflective space to mourn individually and collectively, and ensure that our shared history, no matter how painful, is not forgotten."

A temporary memorial was built by several local communities after 215 unmarked graves were found at the former site of Kamloops Indian Residential School in B.C. in 2021.

The City of Calgary started work to construct a permanent memorial began in 2021, when it partnered with local Indigenous organizations, the Indian Residential School Elders Advisory Group, and the Indian Residential School working group. 

Fort Calgary was picked as the location for the permanent memorial after feedback was collected from the public, including inputs from numerous Indigenous community members and Indigenous-serving groups.

"Fort Calgary's legacy will forever be tied to [the] role of the North West Mounted Police in enforcing the Indian residential school system. Officers searched for and returned children who had run away, they fined parents whose children did not go to school, and they assisted Indian Agents with the removal of children from their homes," said Jennifer Thompson, president of Fort Calgary.

"Truth must come before reconciliation, and the IRS Memorial will help deepen the community's understanding of the truth that is represented here at Fort Calgary.  We are grateful to the community and the City of Calgary for selecting this place as its future home."

The next phase of the construction project will include 'several key milestones', according to Harold Horsefall, Issues Strategist with the City of Calgary's Indigenous Relations Office and co-lead of the memorial project.

"Our focus now is further development of the siting and design workgroup, procurement. Then we'll look towards final design and construction."