This monumental sculpture invites you to bear witness to the lasting harm caused by Canada’s Indian residential school system.

In May, 2021, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation announced that the unmarked graves of Indigenous children had been found at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. Kwaguʼł master carver Stanley C. Hunt responded by creating this massive red-cedar sculpture as a memorial to the children who never returned from Canada’s residential schools.

The Indian Residential School Memorial Monument is not a traditional totem pole or memorial pole. It is unique.

Carved from the trunk of a red cedar tree, the work is 5.5 metres (18 feet) tall and 1.2 metres (4 feet) wide, and features 130 unsmiling children’s faces. A large raven looks down upon them protectively. Emblems such as the maple leaf and the cross, and abbreviations for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and North-West Mounted Police, have been carved upside down.

It is a compassionate work of remembrance. It holds governments, churches, and police forces accountable for creating and running the residential school system. It is a call for all of us to bear witness.

In many Indigenous traditions of the Pacific Coast, witnesses remember, tell stories, and carry the past forward into the future. Visitors to the monument are invited to become witnesses to truth, and to contribute to a future of reconciliation.

The Indian residential school memorial monument is located in the Four Seasons Salon on Level 1 of the Museum, just past the Canadian Stamp Collection.

Listen to Stanley Hunt’s episode of Artifactuality, and read this blog post to learn more about his story, this monumental sculpture, and the importance of truth-telling when it comes to residential schools and reconciliation in Canada.