Hundreds of people stopped outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on Sep. 30 to mark National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Throughout the day, crowds gathered to hear speakers, pay respects, or simply stand in silence.
The grounds opposite the gallery's south plaza were festooned with thousands of orange ribbons, each symbolizing the unmarked grave of an Indigenous child.
Seventh-generation Haida artist Tamara Bell organized the ribbon display.
"This is an installation that represents the children, so it's a very interactive thing. People are bringing their own orange ribbons or getting ribbons made and bringing them down and it really is a way to honour the children," she explained.
Bell is also behind the gallery's shoe memorial and a massive mural on Commercial Drive honouring Indigenous children sent to residential schools.
For Bell, the occasion was a sombre one.
"We have to have truth before reconciliation and I think that people are just getting the sense of what the truth absolutely is. This is a really horrible history of this country; that's the two worlds we live in, the Canadian world and the Indigenous Canada," said Bell.
Similar events were held across the country to commemorate Indigenous lives lost in Canada's residential schools.
