Remembering the Children Weaving Dedicated During Prayer Service

Wearing orange and/or ribbon shirts and skirts, Archdeacon Travis Enright and members of the Edmonton diocese’s Indigenous Ministry Team dedicated an act of love and remembrance of the thousands of Indigenous children who died at Residential Schools across Canada during a prayer service held at All Saints’ Anglican Cathedral on Sunday evening, June 19. 

The diocesan weaving project was started on Ash Wednesday by weaver and lay evangelist Alison Hurlburt in partnership with Fiona Brownlee, rural and aboriginal communities liaison for the Edmonton diocese. Providing orange thread, a loom and instruction, Alison recruited and trained loom keepers in five Edmonton parishes. In the ensuing months, as the loom was moved from parish to parish, dozens of weavers including some from outside the Anglican community offered their prayers while weaving. 

In her post on Facebook about the dedication service, Janice Hurlburt said it is “heartbreaking” to know that each horizontal pass of weft yarn represents one child who died at Residential School.

"There are 18 passes in each inch of the weaving for a total of 8,000 children: 6,000 (TRC estimate) and an additional 2,000+ from recent grave discoveries…The end of the blanket is left open/unravelled to represent the graves yet to be discovered…" said Alison.

The textile’s extra-long fringe, she says, is meant to represent "how the loss inflicted by Residential Schools can never be fully captured or represented by a single piece.” She says the fringe also “symbolises the devastation of intergenerational trauma and the over-representation of Indigenous children in the foster system due to things like Residential Schools, the Sixties Scoop, and the Indian Act.” 

Fiona says a particularly moving part of the dedication service was hearing Cree Elder Eliza Hilliar share a prayer and the story of Grandmother Spiderwoman. As the names of Residential Schools and numbers of unmarked graves were read aloud, Elder Eliza smudged the textile which had been unrolled down the center aisle. 

The congregation lifted up the weaving as Enright spoke of all people being in covenant together.

Alison and Fiona hope churches and community spaces will host the woven textile in the coming weeks and months. Alison intends to share the piece with the weaving class she is teaching at Sorrento Centre in BC this summer. 

“Sorrento is close to Kamloops, so it will be particularly meaningful to bring the piece back to the area that sparked the latest round of energy around recovering and honouring the children who were lost,” she says.

To see pictures of the Remembering the Children diocesan project, follow @rememberthechildren.dioedm on Instagram or visit edmonton.anglican.ca. Photos: Hugh Matheson, Janice Hurlburt

Remember the Children Prayer

God of our Ancestors, 
who holds the spirits of our grandmothers and grandfathers
and the spirits of our grandchildren, 
Remembering the Children,
we now pledge ourselves to speak the Truth,
and with our hearts and our souls
to act upon the Truth we have heard
of the injustices lived,
of the sufferings inflicted,
of the tears cried, 
of the misguided intentions imposed,
and of the power of prejudice and racism
which were allowed to smother the sounds and laughter 
of the children.
Hear our cries of lament for what was allowed to happen, 
and for what will never be.
In speaking and hearing and acting upon the Truth 
may we meet the hope of a new beginning.
Great Creator who desires that all creation live in harmony and 
peace, 
Remembering the Children we dare to dream of a Path of 
Reconciliation
where apology from the heart leads to healing of the heart 
and the chance of restoring the circle, 
where justice walks with all, where respect leads to true 
partnership, 
where the power to change comes from each heart.
Hear our prayer of hope, and guide us on a new and different 
path. Amen