Early-stage planning continues on a memorial for Indigenous children.
The City of Timmins’ Indigenous Advisory Committee received an update on a possible monument in Hollinger Park from Coun. Kristin Murray at its Sept. 20 meeting
Money has been set aside for the creation of the monument to children lost to residential schools, but the form it will take and how much space will be needed is still up in the air.
The monument has been talked about since June 2021.
SEE: Monument honouring residential school survivors, missing children proposed for Timmins
Murray said that a recent trip to Ottawa gave her some ideas of its direction.
“I noticed in their park, they have equipment that is Indigenous specific, like a teeter-totter that looks like a canoe, and I thought that was amazing,” she said. “So having that lens of Every Child Matters and we’re commemorating the peace for the children that may have never got to play in a park.”
Conversations are still happening with the city’s clerk's office on what steps still need to be taken.
“We’re doing some research at this point, like what is it going to cost us, how much for the park do we need to have a site like this,” she said. “Are there land planning use things that we have to consider?”
Hollinger Park’s clock tower was the location of the 2021 memorial to children who never came home from residential schools, with shoes, toys, and orange shirts placed to honour and remember them.
RELATED: Memorial at Timmins park a reminder 'that children should be in those shoes'
The next meeting of the Indigenous Advisory Committee is on Nov. 22 at Timmins City Hall.
The 24-hour national residential school crisis line, established to provide support to former students and their families, can be reached at 1-866-925-4419.
