With every beaded moccasin, a reminder to the spirit of a lost child: 'You are safe now'

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

Project 215+ began as a small dedication to all the babies and children who never made it home from Kamloops Indian Residential School.

Early in the discoveries of these unmarked burial sites at former residential schools, the purpose of the project was to make 215 pairs of moccasins for these children, each with their own brightly coloured beaded piece on top, called vamps.

Jessica Hernandez of Kahnaw:ke Mohawk Territory near Montreal called on beaders across Haudenosaunee territories to come together through beading, to heal and to remember those children.

"It started with Kamloops but it's grown beyond that We'll never know the accurate numbers," she said this week. Hernandez would have never fathomed then that those numbers could exceed 6,000 unidentified bodies of Indigenous children and babies a number estimated by many communities.

She hopes Thursday's new National Day for Truth and Reconciliation will bring to light what many have long-known, that what happened to Indigenous people was genocide. Her intention with Project 215+ now is also to bring awareness.

The project has gained momentum amongst many Haudenosaunee beaders, including at Six Nations in Ontario.

'I just knew I wanted to be part of it'

Charlene Hemlock, Cayuga Nation, Wolf Clan of Six Nations of the Grand River, was assigned child #136. "I was feeling conflicted. I wish I had a name but I understand we don't have names. They're unidentified children," she said.

Using her own children's feet to measure the pattern, the mother of five couldn't help but think of the children who would've worn those moccasins. "When I started putting the moccasins together and I saw how small the feet were, I thought about how scared those babies must've been."

Her own grandmother attended the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, where she helped organize a memorial when the news in Kamloops first broke. "I didn't know how hard it was going to be. I just knew that I wanted to be a part of it," she said.

Her vamp design is a powerful metaphor: "A flower on top of a smaller flower in a semi-circle, sort of like that smaller flower was being protected." It echoes the many accounts of older children in residential schools who protected the younger ones from the priests and nuns. Their parents would have certainly done the same.

The heaviness of the undertaking held her back at first. Hemlock had a difficult time starting the project and beaded three different designs before deciding on one. "I put intention into each moccasin as I was beading reminding the spirit of the child they are safe now."

When the first mass grave was discovered, she had to console her eldest daughter telling her: "Every time we find them, their families and their nations, and their communities can bring them home and they can let their spirits rest now.

"And that's a big comfort, being able to find them. And knowing that those babies are coming home. Throughout the process of making those moccasins, I thought about it all the time."

A painful reminder, but a cathartic process

Iroquoian raised beadwork consists of tiny glass beads that are doubled up on themselves and tightly threaded to create a three-dimensional design. One typical vamp can take up to 10 hours to complete.

Along with the painful reminder, this process was cathartic and united Indigenous communities. Beader Debra Stalk wrote on the Mohawk Crafters Facebook page: "We had child #127. We measured my grandson's feet for the pattern since he is six and the age when many of these children were taken," she said.

"It is the first time my daughter ever worked on a beaded project this large and I am proud of her. It was a work of love and prayers and a way to remember all these children and our ancestors who experienced these hardships."

According to Hemlock's traditional teachings, the pain and grief of losing someone never really goes away. It just becomes a practice of how you deal with that pain.

While news of the unmarked burial sites quieted in recent months although there is coverage again this week the families of survivors must deal with its very real consequences every day.

"There's over 6,000 children that have been recovered so far and it's not big news anymore but we know that and we grieve together," Hemlock said. "The rest of Canada and the United States had their time to grieve with us and then that was it. They can put it aside. They're allowed to do that because it doesn't affect their lives. But we can't do that. We carry it with us."

The project culminates this week with a touring exhibit to First Nations schools, starting on Thursday. Following the exhibit, with participants' permission, Hernandez plans to donate the moccasins to Indigenous children in foster care.

Support is available for anyone affected by their experience at residential schoolsand those who are triggered by these reports.

A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for residential school survivors and others affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.