The flags everywhere are flying at half mast, after the recent announcement that the remains of more than 200 children have been found buried on the grounds of the former Indian Residential School in Kamloops, B.C. They are a symbol of acknowledgement and respect for these young lives, lost to history and to their families, as they were buried in secrecy, undocumented, in unmarked graves far from their homes, often without their own people knowing about it. They were taken away and they never returned.

The news was shocking, but not surprising; a long needed jolt of awakening for the settler people at least. The people of the aboriginal nations have known about this all along, which does not diminish the trauma that these revelations no doubt have reawakened. In a way this seems to have been more effective at reaching the public’s attention than all the years of meetings and reports and recommendations and Calls to Action of all the Commissions and all the recent talk of Truth and Reconciliation, that not to disrespect all of those efforts, sometimes feels like…just so much talk. Well here’s Truth, all right. In an unholy partnership between Government and Church to implement an official policy to “kill the Indian in the child”, (what has come to be known as “cultural genocide”), 150,000 aboriginal children were taken from their families and communities to live in the 139 residential schools across this country, a practice that continued for over 100 years. No one seems to know (or tell) how many children died in the schools. Until now, when the earth is starting to reveal its secrets.

This is a time of Revelations. The secrecy and lies and hidden history are split wide open. More to come.

I spotted these heartbreaking symbols, the visual reaction of people near us to this news, who collected and brought them to rest along a long fence beside the main road to Parksville. Hundreds of little red shoes – a sight that takes your breath away.