Haa Sha Du Hen, Maria Benoit, the chief of the Carcross/Tagish First Nations, and Adeline Webber, chair of the Chooutla School Residential Working Committee, hosted a commemorative event Friday on the First Nations’ traditional territory.

More than 100 survivors and leaders from across the Yukon convened to turn sod on sacred space that will commemorate the school survivors, those who are generally impacted, and those who are yet to be found.

A pavilion will be erected, capable of displaying memorial items and enabling visitors “to hold space, to pray, to reflect and to find solace,” the First Nations said.

A luncheon took place Friday, and a sacred fire burned all day.

“I am honoured to be here today for this momentous, yet emotional day,” Webber said.

“I would like to thank the working group that dedicated the past two years working on this project; your work and dedication has not gone unnoticed by many.

“To the Carcross/Tagish First Nations, you lead by example. They allowed Yukon First Nations to occupy the space on your traditional territory to commence the work on the former site of the Chooutla Residential School, and for taking leadership in erecting a monument and a place where we can all come, particularly when we are having a difficult time, to hold space where we can reflect, pray, and find solace.”

As a third-generational survivor, Benoit also spoke passionately at Friday’s ceremony.

“We will erect this structure and place memorial items here for our past and good things to move forward for those little ones who are lost, we need to let those memories go and let the loved ones move on,” she said. “It’s time to heal.”

“We are forced to confront the realities of the past yet acknowledge the work that has yet to be done. We look around and acknowledge the impact that the residential schools have had on all of us present today, those that are at home, those that are suffering intergenerationally; we acknowledge you, and honour you today,” the chief said.

“As a nation, and as a people, we stand together, and hold each other up by working together as One Nation of Indigenous people.

“We must practise our traditions of healing through ceremony,” Benoit said.

“We are reminded today that we are in between cultures; we have lost some of our young people through the residential schools, through intergenerational traumas inflicted by the legacy of these schools.

“It is time for us to start looking at solutions, finding our way home, and finding our peaceful place in society where we can once again be honoured, and stand proud as Indigenous Yukoners.”

A search for graves with the use of costly ground-penetrating radar is set to take place at the former school site in 2023.

The monument that will be erected at the site “will give people a place to come and reflect and acknowledge the impacts of the past, and work for a better future for our people, while honouring those that have come before us, and the children yet to be born,” the First Nations said.

“To the survivors, those that are intergenerationally impacted, and those that have yet to be accounted for, we honour you.