TIMMINS - The community that inspired Vanessa Génier to take action has a special request.
Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc in British Columbia has asked for over 100 quilts from the Timmins-based Quilts for Survivors, a not-for-profit that makes blankets for survivors of the residential school system and other trauma.
“Their plans are to gift a quilt to all their living survivors in a ceremony ... sometime this year,” said Génier, who previously gifted the community quilts a couple of years ago.
Quilts for Survivors started in June 2021 in the wake of the unmarked graves of 215 Indigenous children being found at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. As more burial grounds were found across Canada, Génier started the organization to help people dealing with trauma.
Génier previously travelled to British Columbia in 2022 to present Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc with three quilts.
“I think being asked to give more quilts means that those first quilts had an impact. That these quilts are fulfilling the purpose and why they were created,” she said.
“They were created to bring comfort and healing … And I think that's what's happening, is that these quilts are providing survivors with what they need to move forward on their journey.”
The goal is to have the new quilts delivered by July, though Génier doesn’t know if she’ll be flying out to present them in person.
Each quilt consists of 12 unique blocks.
Génier initially set out to make 18 quilts, using 216 blocks, in honour of the children in Kamloops.
“What happened in Kamloops in May of 2021 was what stirred something in me, and to be able to possibly go back, or at least present quilts to the place where my journey with Quilts for Survivors started, it's just bringing it full circle,” she said.
“It really is neat that what inspired me is now inspiring them to honour their survivors.”
Génier, an intergenerational survivor, was deeply affected by the news, even though neither she nor her immediate family attended residential school. Her great-grandfather was hidden to avoid being taken, and her great-grandparents never shared their stories.
“I thought if this story of these unmarked graves — which we kind of knew about, but nobody ever talked about — impacts me, an intergenerational survivor … How is it affecting them? Those were their classmates, their loved ones, their family that are buried there,” she said.
“Kids aren't supposed to die at school. Kids aren't supposed to be buried at school. Schools aren't supposed to have graveyards.”
Génier’s initial goal of 18 quilts soon turned into a massive undertaking, evolving into an international movement that continues to grow.
“I just thought as one person, this is what I can do, and as we know now, it just exploded into this international way of comforting survivors,” she said.