"Every Child Matters" Button
Date2021
Dimensions5.5 cm (2 3/16 in.)
Credit LineGift of Lela Yeyatalunyuhe George, London, Ontario, 2021.
Object number2021.007.002
Label TextLela Yeyatalunyuhe George placed this button, with a pair of shoes, on the memorial she spearheaded at London's St. Peter's Cathedral Basilica following the May 2021 discovery of the remains of 215 children at the site of a former Kamloops, BC, residential school. George was raised in a home of Residential School survivors, and the news of 215 children being discovered in Kamloops was a personal moment for her. She said “I come from a family that has residential school survivors. My partner, as well, has grandparents that are here and are survivors themselves. So, I put the callout on Facebook and I asked people to join me to have a memorial for these young children who have yet to be named.”
About the shoes, George shared, “[My son has] outgrown them but we still have them. So I chose his because he is a special needs child and when I was going through all of these thoughts in my head of these children and what they went through, he hits my heart a little bit more because he’s global development delay. He has the mind of a three-year-old. He can’t speak, I guess, like an average child can. He speaks but in his own different way. He signs with his hands and made up his own way of communication. And when I thought about these children being taken from their homes and how young, he came to mind as, you know, if we were back then, what would happen to him, being a child that does not have a voice? And so I decided to lay his shoes down because I think about those children and I think about those children that were found that did not have a voice and now, with their discovery of the remains, we are their voice years later...”
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