St. Ann's Academy and Auditorium National Historic Site — Attraction in Victoria

I attended a beautiful and joy-filled, candlelight musical tribute of Taylor Swift music on Saturday evening with a friend. The 4 string quartet were exceptional, played all my favourite songs, and it was wonderful to be in the company of other “Swifties” who were there to just enjoy the music and the brilliance and skill of the musicians. Well done to the talent. You were phenomenal! ✨💛

The reason for my 2 star review is directly aimed at the woman who first “welcomed” everyone into the auditorium (she went first, then another woman, then the musicians). The 2 stars is because of her lack of territorial acknowledgment and failing to publicly make right relations with Indigenous peoples, specifically, St. Ann’s long history and involvement with the erasure and assimilation of Indigenous children by St. Ann’s “sister’s”. Stepping on a stage and briefly saying, “I am grateful to work, live, play… (insert nation’s territories) and then in the next breath move on, is unacceptable and does not move anyone towards right relations and reconciliation.

As an employee, representative, and/or spokesperson for St. Ann’s, this was an opportunity to speak about the racial inequities, longstanding economic imbalances, and cultural erasure your own institution (that you were speaking on behalf of) was involved in, and you chose to step side this, consciously.

We as a community collective need to hold each other accountable and do better, not sweep our discomforts under the table because we will “burden the mood” of the evening or attendees. Denial and ignorance are the burdens.

Please, do...

St Ann’s Academy is a Canadian National Historic site. It was built in 1871. For over a century, it played an important role in the educational life of Western Canada. It served as a teaching and nursing site for the Roman Catholic sisters of St Ann.

For over a century, St. Ann's played an important role in the educational life of Western Canada. It served as the regional motherhouse for the Sisters of St. Ann, the major female Roman Catholic teaching and nursing order in British Columbia, which had opened its first school on the site in 1858. Inspired by convent designs in the Sisters' native Quebec, the Academy was built in three stages between 1871 and 1910. Among its notable features is the chapel, built as Victoria's first Roman Catholic church in 1858 and later attached to the rear of the convent. St. Ann's and its gardens are among Victoria's most venerable landmarks. *Note: This designation has been identified for review. A review can be triggered for one of the following reasons - outdated language or terminology, absence of a significant layer of history, factual errors, controversial beliefs and behaviour, or significant...

Beautiful grounds, the orchard is a lovely spot and the forest area is amazing. Difficult to feel at peace here knowing the history of the school and of the Sisters of St Ann. They taught at residential schools and actively fought releasing records with crucial information about the residential and school system.

The order staffed the Kamloops Indian Residential School, founded and operated a residential school in Duncan, and staffed the notorious Kuper Island Indian Residential School, St. Mary’s Indian Residential School, and the Lower Post Indian Residential School.

It's impossible to enjoy this place with the knowledge of the evils and harms committed by the sisters who ran St Ann's when it...