Kim Smith
5/20/2012
Hundreds of Edmontonians are honouring aboriginal children in the care of the child welfare system this weekend.
Bernadette Iashtail, executive director and founder of the Creating Hope Society of Alberta, says the event "Blanket of Remembrance" is to honour those who have died while in the system and also to find solutions for the problems that continue to exist.
"Some of them who are placed or gone into homes where they are hurt or abused and some of them have died," says Iashtail. "One of the biggest things, it's not about blaming. It's about how do we do things differently? How do we work differently with our families and our communities?"
The organization says about 67 per cent of children in care are aboriginal, and in the past two years there have been 23 deaths of children in care.
A traditional round dance ceremony is being held from 2:00pm until 9:00pm Sunday at Churchill Square. Iashtail says the organization is expecting between 500 to 1,000 people to come out. (ks)
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