They Were the Seeds

When the initial reports came out that they had found the remains of 215 children at a former residential “school” in Kamloops, last spring, it seemed as though the entire nation was finally beginning to understand the depths of atrocities that occured in these institutions. But as more graves became uncovered, it started feeling like we were just tallying lives and no longer remembering that these were children, each life representing precious medicines lost to the world. We wanted to do something more to commemorate the lives lost. We started thinking about how there are thousands of flowers growing on these lands, each unique in its contribution to the whole. What if every child found could be represented by a flower in a beautiful garden “they were the seeds”. The goal for this project is to represent each child with a beaded orange flower and to have them all become part of a larger mural / art installation that will be showcased at locations to be determined.