Prayer for Penelakut Tribe

Creator, we pray for the memory
of one hundred sixty children
found in British Columbia’s
Southern Gulf Island,
near Kuper Island Residential School,

who were not unloved,
but whose graves were unmarked,

who were not without tender family,
proud tradition, and deep history,
but whose graves were unmarked,

who could have offered
indescribable gifts to Canada
but whose graves were unmarked,

who were not ungrieved then,
with the twisting grief of question marks,
who are not ungrieved now,
even when families are not found,
for all of your creation
are their relations …
but whose graves were unmarked.

May all who live and breathe,
grow, lift up to the sun,
dwell in the seas, glide on the wind,
nest in the small spaces,

all human beings, near and far,
those of the Penelakut Tribe,
and those who now commit to this work
in other places,
mark well their passing.
amen.