Living Healing Quilt Project
Promoting Healing – One Stitch at a Time

My mom, Mavis Harrison Linklater, was four years old when she was sent to St. Margaret’s Residential School in Fort Frances, Ontario. She passed into the spirit world before the legacy of the Residential School System was made public in Canada. She never received an apology from the Catholic Church, or the government of Canada; nor did she receive the “common experience” payment that was issued to survivors of the Residential School System. She was the second generation of my family to attend St. Margaret’s Residential School, as both my grandmother and grandfather were former students.

My mom had many losses in her life, including losing me to the Fort Frances Catholic Children’s Aid in 1969. I became part of the “Sixties Scoop.” When I came home in 1988 she had already passed on.

I could not have completed this quilt block without the help of my sister Deanna Harrison Perrault – who worked with me collaboratively on content; my cousin Trevor Nelson – who retrieved the school picture from a family photo album and produced a jpeg version; my sister Andrea Legge – who re-touched the photograph; my friend Suzanne Smoke – who embroidered the words; and my mother (adoptive) Marion Legge who sewed the quilt block with care and thoughtfulness. This submission was a meaningful project, which brings honour to my mom’s life and experience. Her legacy lives on through myself, my sister Deanna, and her grandchildren – Blaze, Julie and Equix.

Submitted by: Renee Linklater