Lifting Hearts

Messages of Truth, Hope and Healing

The Lifting Hearts project brings Survivors, students, schools, and community together through a simple but powerful symbol: the orange heart. Carrying messages such as “We Are Listening,” “Every Child Matters,” “Never Again,” “Hope,” and “You Are Loved,” the hearts honour Residential School Survivors while creating opportunities for younger generations to learn, remember, and participate in reconciliation.

The project began after many of the orange hearts previously placed along fences in the ch'atlich neighbourhood of the shíshálh Nation had disappeared, particularly around Friendship Park near the shíshálh/Trail Bay pier. Hereditary Chief Ɂakista xaxanak Garry Feschuk engaged Residential School Survivor and respected Elder sosop Frank Dixon to use his carving skills to create new hearts, while also envisioning an opportunity to involve local schools in a meaningful Truth and Reconciliation project through syiyaya.

Over several months, sosop Frank Dixon carved more than 3,000 wooden hearts by hand. The hearts were distributed to local schools, where students and staff painted them and added messages of truth, love, hope, and healing. The finished hearts were then carried into the community and hung along the route of the September 30 March for Truth and Reconciliation, creating a powerful visual expression of remembrance and support for Survivors.

With the support of Shain niniwum selápem Jackson of Spirit Works, each school also received 53 engraved hearts, bearing the names of the First Nations communities whose children were taken from their homes to attend Residential School in Sechelt. These hearts help tell a larger story, showing how far-reaching the impacts of the Residential School system were and reminding us that many children were taken great distances from their families and communities, with some never returning home.

At its heart, Lifting Hearts is about connection across generations. A Survivor's hands carved the hearts, young people gave them messages, and the community carried them forward. Together, these acts of remembrance transform the orange hearts into symbols of listening, learning, healing, and our shared responsibility to ensure that these truths are never forgotten.