Orange footprints in Victoria Park: Stepping towards an important Indigenous-led tribute

If you’ve been walking through Victoria Park this spring, you might have noticed orange ribbons tied to some of the lamp posts, and more recently orange footprints painted on the trails throughout the park. These ribbons were to signal that an important resident-led tribute is coming to Victoria Park – an Honorary Crosswalk for Every Child Matters. And the orange footprints are the first step towards bringing this tribute to the park.

Impassioned by the overwhelming community support she witnessed on the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation in 2021, Sheena Merling (Bin-no-g Man-na-doe Quay – Spirit of the Children).  formed a committee of Indigenous community members and allies with the vision of bringing a decorative “Every Child Matters” crosswalk to Victoria Park as part of a tribute to honour the children who were lost and those who still live with the generational trauma caused by residential schools.

Sheena and her committee were awarded a LoveMyHood Matching Grant to help bring this vision to life and since then, have been hard at work engaging with residents, raising awareness, and having conversations to educate the community about the Every Child Matters movement and the impact of residential schools. Through this engagement, they have formed meaningful relationships with local Indigenous organizations, school boards, churches, and the local neighbourhood association to walk with them on this journey of community building, healing, and truth and reconciliation.

This tribute consists of three elements:

• Installation of an Every Child Matters thermoplastic crosswalk in Victoria Park (Water St. and Jubilee Dr.),
• Painting of orange footprints leading to the crosswalk representing each child that died at a residential school in Canada, and
• Hosting an unveiling ceremony for the crosswalk in September 2022, in time for National Day of Truth and Reconciliation

The tribute has been endorsed by the Orange Shirt Society and will contain the Official 2022 Orange Shirt Design. It will be the first officially endorsed Every Child Matters crosswalk in the country!

Over the past few weeks, Sheena and her team have been working with community members to paint the footprints along the trails in Victoria Park and are grateful for all the support and encouragement they have received. Through the laying of these footprints, Sheena and her team have taken a big step towards their goal of honouring the children that were lost while sparking important conversations that c bring our community together to learn and build capacity for long-term change as we work towards truth and reconciliation.

We encourage residents to follow this group’s journey by following the Honorary Crosswalk Every Child Matters Kitchener Facebook page. We also encourage you to learn more about the Orange Shirt Society and other ways to support the Every Child Matters movement by visiting their website. 

Photography by Jimmy Gribbon - JBG Photography. 

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