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VIDEO: Large group walking from Langley to Mission to foster reconciliation

The Walk in the Spirit of Reconciliation lasts Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday.
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Township Mayor Jack Froese joined a number of seniors on a walk through the Derke Doubleday Arboretum Thursday, to kick off Seniors Week. (Special to the Langley Advance)

A large group of mostly strangers to each other set out on foot from the Fort Langley National Historic Site Friday evening.

The second annual Walk in the Spirit of Reconciliation got underway as the sun was setting.

The walkers would go eight kilometres Friday evening, walk again Saturday and complete the final leg Sunday, by which time the strangers will have had lots of time to talk as they walked. The 35 kilometre walk was from the fort to the former St. Mary’s Residential School, where many First Nations children from this community were forced to attend.

Josette Antone Dandurand is one of 11 residential school survivors at Kwantlen First Nation.

She thanked the large group for taking part.

The walk is organized by several local churches and Reconciliation Langley, a community group working to increase awareness and understanding of the residential school history and its impact.

See video of Dandurand’s nine years in residential school.



Heather Colpitts

About the Author: Heather Colpitts

Since starting in the news industry in 1992, my passion for sharing stories has taken me around Western Canada.
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