A woman in Timmins Ontario is working to support residential school survivors.
Vanessa Genier has started Quilts for Survivors, which has been working to make and acquire quilts to give to residential school survivors.
Genier, who is from the Missanabie Cree First Nation, explained she wanted to do something to help as unmarked graves started coming to light.
“I knew I had to do something to help survivors, there’s lots of people raising money and raising awareness, but I didn’t know of anything that was specifically for survivors of residential school,” she said.
Both of Genier’s great grand parents were forced to attend residential schools while her grandfather was forced to hide in the bush so he would not be taken.
(Photo Courtesy of Vanessa Genier Facebook)
Quilts for Survivors is mostly being organized online where there is a Facebook group. Genier said when she was starting out she reached out to people through online quilting groups.
“I just put feelers out on Facebook and then people were very responsive,” she said.
So far Quilts for Survivors has given out 97 blankets to survivors. Genier said she currently has 60 quilts in her home that need to be finished up and delivered. The overwhelming interest has forced Genier to push back the deadline to sending in patches and quilts to her until Thanksgiving.
She added there are also people who are part of the group who are making quilts and sending them out to survivors themselves.
“We’ve estimated that as of last night we have about 200 quilts that will be sent out,” said Genier.
Genier said people have been sending in quilts along with blocks to be sewed into quilts from as far away as Norway and Australia. She explained each quilt is quite unique as they are made by a range of people.
“They’re as different as the people who make them,” she said.
When looking for survivors to give the quilts to, Genier said has reached out to survivors through a residential school survivor Facebook page and also has been helped by media providing coverage of her work.
Many of those who have received quilts have been happy to get them. Genier told the story of one woman who got in contact with Quilts for Survivors and got a blanket for her mother. Genier said the woman’s daughter shot a video, which is on the group’s Facebook page, of her mother getting the quilt.
“Her words were, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe strangers did this for, me for, us,” said Genier.
(Photo Courtesy of Quilts for Survivors Facebook)