Stories of Kindness from Around the World

When I heard about the mass grave found at the Kamloops Indian residential school in Canada, where the remains of 215 children were discovered, I felt the need to help transform the sorrow for those innocents into a measure of healing.

After reading KindSpring friend Brad2’s post (https://www.kindspring.org/my/story.php?sid=206910) I asked Brad2 how I could respectfully honour the memory of the children by doing what I do, folding and sharing origami peace doves.

He told me that orange was the official colour being used to highlight the healing journey of the survivors. He also explained that the stories of individuals from the school are shared to create an awareness that ‘Every Child Matters’. A prayer for the children that never made it home is being circulated on social media by all tribes. He added a prayer of support for the families involved and his own personal request for healing and reconciliation.

After much thought, prayer, and meditation, the Kamloops Doves were created. White doves for innocence and purity, an orange heart on the breast as the official colour of remembrance with a special blessing included in the wing. The doves are numbered from 1 - 215 to represent each dear child.

Enlisting the aid of the LLCC (Library Ladies Chat Club), we completed the Kamloops Doves a few days ago. We held a small ceremony near the Memorial Garden of a local child who tragically passed away. The youngest member of our group a high school teen of Native American heritage called Rae, read the blessing as follows:

Every Child Matters
🧡
Please accept
this Dove of Peace
as a prayer of support,
healing and reconciliation
for the families of the children
who never made it home
from the Kamloops Indigenous
residential school in Canada.
Let us remember and honour
all who suffered such injustice,
by respecting cultural diversity
with loving compassion and respect.

In the late afternoon sun, we shared our desire for truth, justice, understanding, tolerance and peace through the love that embodies the Oneness of all.


Each participant was given a small flock of doves to release. The rest will be shared with our global community of KindSpring friends - with a large flock flying to Brad2 and to the workers and visitors of Crazy Horse Memorial https://crazyhorsememorial.org/story here in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

🧡 ðŸ•Š The Kamloops Doves were some of the most difficult doves I have ever folded. My heart tugged as I created each, forming tears that flowed through me. As the doves increased in number and were bound together with thread, the enormity of this terrible injustice took physical form.

Listening to Native American flute music as I folded, I visualized the energy brought up from Mother Earth to the healing release of Father Sky. With the courage and strength of loving compassion, let us never allow such a travesty to happen again.

Blessings of healing and peace ðŸ™.