Quilts for residential school survivors project in Timmins gets global support

After the discovery of 215 children’s bodies in Kamloops B.C., Vanessa Genier of Timmins decided to use her passion for quilting to support other Indigenous people. (Photo courtesy of Vanessa Genier)

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A Timmins woman is getting widespread attention for her initiative to help residential school survivors heal from renewed trauma as unmarked gravesites are discovered across the country.

After the discovery of 215 children’s bodies in Kamloops B.C., Vanessa Genier decided to use her passion for quilting to support other Indigenous people.

Last month, Genier started a group called ‘Quilts for Survivors’ on Facebook, with the goal of sending as many quilts as possible to residential school survivors across Canada.

“I felt like I had to do something,” said Genier, a member of Missanabie Cree First Nation.

“It definitely was a project that needed to happen and I think … the survivors that receive these quilts will feel the love that was put into them and hopefully it supports them, wherever they are on their healing journey.”

Genier scoured social media for other quilters who would want to contribute to the project with their own designs, aiming to receive 215 quilt blocks incorporating the colour orange, in honour of the children discovered in Kamloops.

To her surprise, people around the country, the U.S. and as far as Norway have been shipping their creations to Genier’s home. She now has enough material to make at least 21 quilts.

Family and friends have been helping Genier sew the quilt blocks together, including her mother, Cheryl Macumber.

Macumber’s grandparents and great-uncles went to residential schools and she said it led to her growing up without her culture and language.

Only in recent months, amidst continued discoveries of unmarked gravesites, did Macumber realize the impact of the residential school system on her family — and she said her daughter’s project is helping bring forth a spiritual awakening.

“This is what she was created for,” Macumber said.

“So many of us Canadians do not know the history of our people. I didn’t even know it, but now all of these people who are doing quilts are looking up the history of our people.”

Caroline Dillabough near Edmonton caught word of Quilts for Survivors and decided to contribute quilt blocks of her own.

Having grown up near St. Joseph Mission Residential School in B.C., which closed in 1981, she said hearing stories from survivors made it all the more important for her to help survivors in some way.

“When I saw Vanessa's call for quilt blocks to make quilts for survivors, I just knew this was the right thing to do,” Dillabough told CTV in an email.

“If we can wrap survivors in our quilts of love, maybe, just maybe, we can be part of their healing.”

That's a sentiment shared by Genier’s best friend, Melanie Cannon-Regimbal, who said she did not hesitate to help Genier sew quilts when she heard about the project.

An avid quilter herself, Cannon-Regimbal said even though she is not Indigenous, she felt a responsibility to help.

‘We are just going to keep going’

“The minute that she said she was looking at doing this, she didn’t even have to ask,” she said in a phone interview.

“This is my way of contributing and my way of being able to help.”

Genier said many people contributing to her quilts said they were looking for a way to support Indigenous people during this time, but did not know how. Now, her group has grown to more than 800 people.

The plan is to start shipping quilts to residential school survivors who reached out to her on social media. Genier will ship the rest to First Nations chiefs around the country and ask that they be given to survivors in those communities.

Genier said she wants this to be an example to her five children to always help people in need. She said her mission is only growing stronger with every tragic discovery and she will continue making and shipping quilts as long as blocks come to her door.

“Whether we send out 20 quilts or 100 quilts or if we get to every First Nation, then that’s what we’re going to do and we are just going to keep going.”