The Tears of Truth Bead Curtain is a project that invited Brandon area students and community members to build a curtain using beads as an intentional act of remembrance.

Orange beads represent the devastation, pain, and loss of culture and life inflicted upon Indigenous children, families, and communities by Canada’s residential schools. Blue, white, and clear beads represent tears that were, and continue to be, shed.

At the same time, blue and clear beads evoke water, which is life, and represent the hope of healing, repaired relationships, and a good life for the generations of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people who share this land now and into the future.

Some strands hold a symbolic number of beads: 2,800 that represent the children who did not return home from residential school and whose names are known; 1,400 children who did not return home from residential school whose names are not known; and a final bead, representing survivors.

Facilitators: Tara Leach, Raven Willoughby, Christine Cantelo

Grade 2 to Grade 12 students and staff:

Betty Gibson School, Kirkcaldy Heights School, King George School, Meadows School, École Harrison, Waverly Park School, Prairie Hope High School, Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School.

Community:

Sioux Valley High School Students, Brandon University Student Services; Diana and Marshall Morrisseau and family.

Supporters: Vanessa Pascal, Kassiah Sankar, Tracy Pratt, Ann Boychuk, Taryn Van Meijl, Doug Pople, Joan Garbutt, Jaime Taggart, Katie Whelpton, Alex Braun.