TteS, federal government had follow-up meeting to discuss healing centre, Kukpi7 says

Photo: Castanet Staff

Kukpi7 Rosanne Casimir speaks at a March event.

Kukpi7 Rosanne Casimir said she has had a follow-up meeting with the federal government in regards to a healing centre, elders’ lodge and museum for Tk’emlups te Secwepemc.

During his visit to Tk’emlups in October, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had promised to work together with TteS to establish the facilities, which were requested by the First Nations band.

In a press conference Wednesday, Casimir was asked if the federal government had made any progress following up on this promise.

“The federal government, I believe, is working on some steps to support our community and all those that have been impacted here from Kamloops Indian Residential School for that healing centre. I am going to be following up,” Casimir said.

“I did have a follow up meeting with him in regards to the ask that we had and the significance and the importance.”

Casimir said the healing centre, elders’ lodge and museum would be meaningful for the community, especially residential school survivors.

“All three of those we saw as something that was really extremely important for our community when we're looking at community perspectives towards healing,” Casimir said.

Casimir said TteS has many artifacts they want to be able to share in a museum. In October, she said there are artifacts currently held in a New York museum that are waiting to be returned to Tk’emlups.

According to Casimir, an elders lodge would enable the band to care for its aging members on TteS land, while the healing centre would be for residential school and intergenerational survivors.

“We know that there's so much healing when it comes to all the traumas that so many have experienced from residential school,” Casimir said.

“We know that it's going to allow for a safe place and space to be able to reconcile the past and to be able to move forward in a good way.”

During his visit in October, Trudeau said the government is committed to working with TteS to address community needs.

“We will continue to work together on important issues, whether its the healing centre that this community has been asking for for a long time and certainly needs as a consequence of the discovery of the unmarked graves, or an elders' lodge, or designation of historic sites,” Trudeau said.

He said the government would also move forward to invest in a museum in order to commemorate and support the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc language and culture.

“These are all actions that we remain committed to, and this is the conversation we had today,” Trudeau said.