Day Eleven Tuesday – July 26 – We spent this morning with a First Nations representative who educated us about the Canadian Residential Schools history. He is a member of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc band and the Okanagan band. As a young man, he is committed to sharing this history, and it was an emotional morning to learn about the 150,000 indigenous children, ages 5 to 18, who were removed from their families between 1870- 1990, in what was essentially cultural genocide. Significant to our location is the finding of at least 215 remains at the Kamloops Residential School, see: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/tk-emlúps-te-secwépemc-215-children-former-kamloops-indian-residential-school-1.6043778
It is fitting that we did this today, because the Pope was in Canada yesterday offering apologies and reconciliation. There are far too may facts on this issue to relate here, but for those who are interested, I noted several interesting pieces on this topic on CNN.com today.
This afternoon we traveled from Kamloops, BC to Kawlowna, BC at a leisurely pace. We enjoyed the rugged and semi arid desert landscape and beautiful Kalamalka Lake and Wood lake. This area of British Columbia is known for fruit growing and we stopped to enjoy that as well.