Williams Lake First Nation releases community vision for St. Joseph's Mission site revitalization

In the months between spring and early summer of 2025, Williams Lake First Nation opened its doors to listen. Across in-person sessions held in regional centres and through virtual gatherings, the nation invited residential school survivors, their families, and community members to speak about what should happen to the land where St. Joseph's Mission once stood. The sessions were designed as safe spaces—places where people could name what was taken from them, what they remembered, and what they hoped might grow in that place instead.

St. Joseph's Mission operated as a residential school for generations, part of the system that removed Indigenous children from their families and communities. The physical buildings are gone now, but the ground itself carries the weight of that history. So does every person who lived through it, and every family that lost someone there. The question facing Williams Lake First Nation was not whether to move forward, but how to do so in a way that honoured both the children who never returned home and the survivors still living with the consequences.

What emerged from those months of conversation became the What We Heard Report, released in early November. It is not a plan handed down from above, but a reflection of what survivors and community members actually said they needed. The report captures a collective vision centred on three things: healing, remembrance, and cultural resurgence. People spoke about establishing a healing centre on the site—a place where survivors and their families could access support and gather. They described wanting ceremonial and gathering spaces, areas where traditional practices could happen again. They imagined the landscape itself transformed: Indigenous languages visible, artworks created by community members, natural features restored or integrated into the design. The vision was not about erasing what happened there, but about reclaiming the space for purposes that serve the living.

Chief Willie Sellars framed the report as a turning point. "The What We Heard Report reflects the courage and honesty of Survivors, families, and community members who have shared their truths with us," he said. "Their voices are central to this process and will continue to guide how we move forward." This was not ceremonial language. The nation had committed to making survivor input foundational—not advisory, not secondary, but central to every decision that follows.

The work ahead is substantial. The report will guide the next phases of investigation into what happened at the site, and it will shape how the revitalization unfolds over years to come. Williams Lake First Nation has signalled that this is not a project with a finish line, but an ongoing commitment to honouring survivors and families "for generations to come." The nation acknowledged the strength required of everyone who participated—the act of speaking about residential schools, of naming trauma, of imagining healing in a place so marked by harm, demands resilience that should not be taken for granted.

For those whose experiences with residential schools remain raw, the nation also provided a resource: the Indian Residential School Survivors Society operates a crisis support line available around the clock at 1-866-925-4419. The acknowledgment that this work could be triggering, that some people would need support as they engaged with it, was itself a form of care—a recognition that healing is not something that happens in a single moment, but something that requires sustained attention and resources.