Jazz Lavallee is an indigenous woman who is hoping to spread a message as she travels from Manitoba to Nova Scotia.
Joining her on her journey, Virgil Moar, a residential day school survivor and the son of a residential school survivor. The duo made it to Kenora on Thursday, September 8, 2022, and took time to set up camp and take in Kenora for the weekend.
“It takes a team to do this. I thought I was going to do this all on my own last year, but I realized that it takes people to do something like this,” explained Lavallee
Last year, Lavallee walked from British Columbia to Manitoba. Lavalle was inspired to start her journey after hearing the horrifying news of the discovery of 215 unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
Lavallee later explained that she is now completing a four-directional walk after learning about the importance of completing “circles.”
“This year, we are going to walk to Nova Scotia where we will touch the ocean on behalf of all the children and survivors. Next year, Tuktoyaktuk, which is up north, we will touch the water there. The following year, we will walk to New Orleans and touch the water there too. And finally, we will drive back to Kamloops where we will fully submerge ourselves in the water to complete the walk for healing.”
On Friday, Lavallee and Moar visited the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School memorial site.
“We stop at different residential school [memorial sites] along the way. We will go from 1:15 pm to 2:15 pm, we put out children’s moccasins on our star blanket, and we just honour those children. We’re here to show kindness, we respect who they are and remember them because they are not forgotten,” said Lavallee.
“We must start talking to our children, tell them about the darkness, we don’t have to get detailed, but we must tell them what our people went through so that we can move on. The way I look at it, the people our age were the truth and the little ones, the little ones are going to be the reconciliation.”
You can follow Lavallee and Moar along their journey: HERE