The New Monument

 Standing in this salon area on its own is a new monument, with its home here in the museum. This is the Indian Residential School Memorial Monument. The darkest chapter in our country's history, the residential school program took indigenous children from their homes, putting them in boarding school situations far from their families, and traumatized them for decades. Some didn't return home. It is an ongoing process, as some of those schools didn't close until the 1990s. The monument dates to 2023, but this is the first time I have seen it. Stanley Hunt, a carver from BC, carved this work, with a raven ar the top. The agencies that are responsible for the program- the churches, the Mounties, and the government- have their symbols marked upside down on the monument, alongside a series of faces done in the style prevalent of the far west. It is sobering.

Out I went into the Grand Hall, which collects a number of totem poles, with recreated facades of Pacific Coast houses. It is a large space, and always well worth spending time in.

Outside, the snow continued. The Alexandra Bridge was a ghost in the background.