Living Healing Quilt Project
Promoting Healing – One Stitch at a Time
My name is Kimberley Dunstan, I am Nlakapamux from Lytton British Columbia. My parents are Malcolm and Linda Dunstan, they attended St. Georges Residential School. I am inter-generational and I have been impacted by the Residential School experience.
This poem was inspired through the duration of the pre-CEP settlement. When I grasped the underlining propaganda regarding inter-generational survivors. I opted-out of the CEP settlement. I handed out over 320 opt-out forms in my community.
I truly believe that when my mother, when my father share their truth to their family, to their community, to the nation, And to the world. That is when my family will begin to heal. Only then will I be able to share my truth in a healing way.
Inter-generational survivors we to have our truths to share, but it will be unfitting until our parents and grandparents expose their pain that has been cemented into them. I pray through the process of TRC that (not one) of the children of Residential School be left behind.
I envision a change for myself. I want change, but the process for change means extending myself into a place where I am not fitting. This comes from a belief system that has been established through the experiences in my life.
I want to make a difference for my children as well as my people. There is more to poverty than lack of jobs. There is this GAP that is filled with many compounded factors (emotional, mental, physical, sexual, and spiritual) that obstruct one’s success to a quality life.
The Residential Schools in Canada have left behind a very negative legacy. History is an important piece in our present and hopeful future though there is this breach in how it is depicted because there are many untold truths that have not been conveyed.
June 11, 2008 is a turning point for the Nlakapamux Nation. A turning point for First Nations, Metis and the Inuit to seize this day as proud Canadians. A historical day indeed where the Canadian government put forth an effort to acknowledge the wrongs committed.
Now it is time for the little boys and the little girls of the residential school to voice their truth to complete the circle so that their children and grandchildren can be rediscovered.
What a wonderful way to express one’s self through your quilting project. I am glad that I fell upon your site so that I am given this chance to express my voice. I am grateful for the Internet; it closes the distance.
I am very much appreciative to you Alice for putting forth an effort to bring Residential Survivors and Inter-generational Survivors together in healing way. Here is my piece for the quilting project. Thank you so much I look forward to seeing the finished project.
