Efforts are underway to bring the Witness Blanket to Quesnel.
Amy Robertson, Cultural Instructor at the Native Friendship Centre, says the first step was to gauge community support for the project.
“I’ve put the letter of support out there to see if we want this in our community, and what I’ve gotten back is yes we do. So now my job is to get back to the representative for the Witness Blanket and say here we go, what’s our next step.”
Robertson says the Witness Blanket is basically a series of artifacts that have been brought together.
“They call it a witness blanket because it kind of looks like a patchwork quilt and it is made of artifacts that come from actual residential schools right across Canada. There was a team that traveled to all of the residential school sites in Canada and they picked up at least one relic from each, some standing and some not standing.”
Robertson says each artifact tells a bit of a story.
She says they put them into shadow boxes and pieced them together into a wall hanging that is phenomenal.
Robertson says the original is in a museum in Manitoba and they have two replicas, one for the west coast and one for the east coast and they travel around from community to community as an educational tool for truth and reconciliation.
She says it will mean a lot to survivors of residential schools, and she hopes people that didn’t go can learn from the exhibit.
“I think to our survivors it will bring a sense of wow, we’re actually being heard. Our story is being told and the truth is coming out. To the people that haven’t attended residential school I am hoping it will bring awareness, and will help people to understand some of the travesties and horrific things that happened to some of the survivors.