The Coniston Historical Group invites the public to take part in Walk for Wenjack in Bell Park on Sunday, Oct. 22.
The event begins at 1 p.m. at the Elizabeth Street parking lot.
Chanie Wenjack was an Anishanaabe boy born in Ogoki Post on the Marten Falls Reserve Jan. 19, 1954.
“Chanie’s story, tragically, is like so many stories of Indigenous children in this country; he fell victim to Canada’s colonization of Indigenous peoples,” states the About section of the Gordon Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund website. “Chanie’s body was found beside the railway tracks on Oct. 22, 1966, one week after he fled the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School in Kenora.”
The Coniston Historical Society urges members of the public to join them for the event on Sunday.
“Let’s come together as a community and walk a small fraction of the more than 600 kilometres that Chanie Wenjack needed to walk to get home,” said a Facebook page promoting the event.
During the Walk for Wenjack, leaders of the event will stop at points along the way to speak about Indigenous history in what became the Sudbury region.
A copy of “The Secret Path” by the late Gord Downie and Jeff Lamire, which tells Wenjack’s story, will be raffled off during the event.
