To participate in conversations regarding efforts of reconciliation made by UFV, the Chilliwack UFV library has started a project to complete 1000 origami ravens and put them on display as a show of acknowledgment for the history and reality of residential schools.
Last Wednesday from 2–3 p.m. a raven-making workshop was held just inside the Chilliwack library. The event started with education librarian Heather Compeau and library technician Lisa Morry describing what the staff there has been working on. The raven making started off as an idea of Shirley Hardman, the senior advisor on Indigenous affairs at the UFV Indigenous affairs office, as a means of bolstering UFV’s efforts surrounding reconciliation. She had done some research, and came across the story of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes written by Canadian-American author Eleanor Coerr, which became an inspiration for her initiative.
From there, the plan was to also base the event off the story Legend of Sugar Girl by Joseph Boyden. The story is currently on course reserve, and is a quick 10-page read for those who may be interested. Students are also allowed to photocopy the story and take it home with them. While it is a fictional story, Morry reminded attendees that there is truth in fiction, and the story is based off real-life events. There is also a lib-guide available for the story online.
To quickly summarize the events of Legend of Sugar Girl, a girl is taken from her family and she is sent to a residential school where she is not allowed to speak her language, her hair is cut, and she’s not allowed to practice her culture or see her family. At the school, they feed her new foods such as bland oatmeal. She adds sugar to her oatmeal since it tastes so strange, and she gathers sugar candies from the nuns to help soothe herself. Eventually, her fixation on sugar as a means of coping with her environment coins her the name “Sugar Girl.” She loses her connection to her traditions, her land, and who she is. Because of her lack of personal connections and outlets, after she leaves the school she ends up in a place pretty similar to Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. There, she develops alcohol issues, and encounters many more hardships over the course of her life. Before she dies, she has a son. As the story ends, there is a sense of hope as she leaves him behind to have a better life without residential school.
The campus library in Chilliwack currently has a display set up at their entrance which represents the imagery of the Legend of Sugar Girl. The raven holds a lot of symbolism for Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast, and its white-and-black garb somewhat resembles the nun’s habit. Morrey found this piece of information particularly moving as she set up the display.
The display also includes a number of other symbols, including a Hudson’s Bay blanket due to their involvement in the oppression of Indigenous culture, and a backdrop of Mount Slesse since it is regarded as a transformation site. The hat and blanket that Sugar Girl is wearing in the display belong to Mark Evered. The Indigenous Student Centre made the regalia for Mark, and they are on loan to the Chilliwack library from him.
The raven-making process is meant to acknowledge the atrocities committed against Indigenous peoples during the residential school era which are still being felt today, and to inspire acts of decolonization and reconciliation. While this event was likely the last of the workshops before the library plans to display the ravens, a small table remains set up at the front of the Chilliwack library, complete with origami paper and an instructional video played on repeat to encourage more students to participate over the course of the fall term. According to Morrey, there have so far been approximately 550 ravens completed, so there is still a fair amount to finish.
A wrap-up celebration is currently in the midst of being planned and is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 20. There, the final installation of all the origami ravens will be presented. The original idea for the installation was to hang a large mobile in the CEP building atrium; however, it is now more likely that a stringed display in the windows will be erected. The story Legend of Sugar Girl may also be read aloud at this event.
