[Photo above: Splatsin members and their supporters walk on Sept. 10, 2021, the last day of the five-day Walking Our Children’s Spirits Home Journey from the Kamloops residential school. Here they were walking the spirits of the children who died in Kamloops to meet the spirits of children at Splatsin’s Shihiya School in order to join past, present and future. (Martha Wickett – Salmon Arm Observer)]

As their feet touched the ground, so did emotions touch their hearts.

From Sept. 6 to 10, a group from the Splatsin First Nation walked more than 100 kilometres to ensure the spirits of 215 children whose remains were confirmed at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in May, were not left stranded, were not kept away from their home as they had been in life.

Splatsin Tkwamipla7 (Councillor) Edna Felix, the main organizer of the Splatsin Walking Our Children’s Spirits Home Journey, spoke of…