Loretta Wiley, residing in Alberta, was deeply moved when she received a handmade quilt through the Quilts for Survivors project, one year after learning about it. Expressing her emotions to CBC’s Shannon Scott, Wiley described the beauty of the quilt and the overwhelming feeling it evoked.
Despite her short time with the quilt, Wiley decided to take it to Tulita, N.W.T., her hometown, as a gesture of honor to her parents. She recounted the moment she made this decision to her husband while admiring the quilt laid out on the floor at home.
Having applied to Quilts for Survivors on a whim last spring after discovering the organization on social media, Wiley and her husband took the quilt on a journey from Grimshaw, Alta., to Norman Wells, N.W.T., with a stop in Tulita. There, she surprised her father and stepmother, Fred Clement and Louise Reindeer, with the quilt, which they decided to keep on their wall as a cherished memory.
During her visit to Rosie’s Cabin in Tulita, where she had been raised by her late grandmother Rosie Norwegian, Wiley reminisced about her childhood and the stories her grandmother shared about her time at the residential school in Fort Providence. Reflecting on her family’s history with residential schools, Wiley felt grateful for her grandmother’s love and resilience.
Vanessa Genier, the founder of Quilts for Survivors, initiated the project in 2021 as a response to the discovery of unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. As an intergenerational survivor herself, Genier felt compelled to help survivors through her quilting skills. The project has since evolved into a non-profit in Timmins, Ont., and has distributed over 8,400 quilts across North America.
Wiley, whose quilt featured a butterfly motif symbolizing her grandmother, emphasized the importance of sharing the quilt with her family. She expressed a sense of completion and fulfillment upon achieving her goal of honoring her grandmother through the quilt.
