{"id":71624,"date":"2021-06-12T15:15:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-12T23:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/community-members-hold-vigil-for-residential-school-victims\/"},"modified":"2021-06-12T18:21:22","modified_gmt":"2021-06-13T02:21:22","slug":"community-members-hold-vigil-for-residential-school-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/community-members-hold-vigil-for-residential-school-victims\/","title":{"rendered":"Community members hold vigil for residential school victims"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t
Dozens of Juneau residents gathered at Mayor Bill Overstreet Park on Saturday afternoon to mourn the 215 children recently found buried near a residential school in Canada.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Hundreds of children’s shoes lined the plaza in front of the park’s prominent whale statue, Takhu, memorializing those children taken away to the residential schools and never returned, said event organizer Jeni Brown.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“We are here today because 215 little brown bodies were uncovered and their story needs to be shared,” said Yolanda Fulmer as she spoke to the crowd. “They need to be witnessed.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
More than 6,000 children died or disappeared in the Canadian residential school system, according to the Associated Press.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“These children couldn’t even comprehend why they were taken,” Brown said as she addressed a somber crowd. “They were all innocent.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t