The Kamloops residential school’s mass grave: What we know about the 215 children’s remains, and Canada’s reaction so far
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Toronto, May 30: Candles are lit at a vigil for the 215 Indigenous children whose remains were uncovered on the grounds of a former residential school near Kamloops, B.C.
Chris Young/The Canadian Press
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Need to talk with someone? There is a national Indian Residential School Crisis Line (1-866-925-4419). In B.C., a toll-free First Nations and Indigenous Crisis Line (1-800-588-8717) is offered through the KUU-US Crisis Line Society.
The 215 children’s remains in B.C.: What we know Where is the Kamloops Indian Residential School?
Built on the territory of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in the southern B.C. Interior, the Kamloops Indian Residential School was at one point the largest of Canada’s institutions designed to separate Indigenous youth from their parents and cultures. It operated from 1890 to 1969, mostly under a Catholic order called the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, but the federal government ran it as a day school for nine more years before it closed in 1978.
How were the 215 children found?
Previously, the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s registry could confirm only 51 deaths at Kamloops from 1914 to 1963. But the Tk’emlups community long suspected that more children were buried on the grounds and tried for about 20 years to find them. Recently, a grant from B.C.’s Pathway to Healing program allowed the nation to pay for ground-penetrating radar, which was used over the Victoria Day weekend to find the site. The survey team’s preliminary findings were made public on May 27; a fuller report is expected in June.
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What do we know about these children?
Some of the remains belonged to children as young as 3. They’re believed to be previously undocumented deaths, Kukpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir says. But it could be a while before the remains can be excavated, identified and returned to their home communities for proper burial; forensic protocols for mass graves can be complex and rigorous. It could require help from the B.C. Coroners Service or the Royal B.C. Museum, depending how the Tk’emlups and other nations decide to proceed.
The former Kamloops Indian Residential School, shown on the day the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced the children’s remains were found.
Andrew Snucins/The Canadian Press
What is a residential school? Some context Who ran residential schools in Canada?
From the 1870s to the 1990s, residential schools were part of a systematic federal policy to assimilate Indigenous children into European culture, based on racist assumptions that their own cultures were inferior. Children were separated from their parents and lived in poorly funded schools where federal- or church-run staffs punished them for speaking their own languages. Physical and sexual abuse, malnutrition and disease were common. Over all, there were about 130 residential schools, the last of which closed in Saskatchewan in 1996.
Survivors pressed the government and churches for compensation and apologies, a process that led to a $2-billion settlement and the creation of the TRC. Its final report in 2015, based on interviews with more than 6,000 witnesses, said the schools amounted to cultural genocide and are inseparable from the present-day problems Indigenous people face, from high rates of poverty, suicide and incarceration to the loss of Indigenous lands and traditions.
How many people died in Canada’s residential schools?
The TRC’s Missing Children Project has so far documented more than 4,100 deaths in the schools, but the full tally could be as high as 6,000.
The 2015 report noted huge gaps in the available records of deceased students’ names, genders or even causes of death. Six of the TRC’s “calls to action” (71 to 76) have to do with missing children and burials, and demand a clear plan to tell families where their lost loved ones are buried and make sure cemeteries are well maintained.
Shoes are surround Parliament Hill’s Centennial Flame in Ottawa in memory of the 215 children.
Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
Mourning across Canada
Community gestures: Friday’s developments in Kamloops led to spontaneous gestures of solidarity across Canada, such as the leaving of empty shoes in front of legislatures, churches and public buildings.
Official responses: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, federal cabinet ministers and provincial premiers have expressed sympathy about the news, which Mr. Trudeau called “a painful reminder of that dark and shameful chapter of our country’s history.” Mr. Trudeau had flags on federal buildings lowered to half-mast; the premiers of Manitoba and Saskatchewan have done the same for flags at their legislatures, as have some of the mayors of Canada’s large cities for municipal buildings. Many of the flag-lowerings will last 215 hours, or nine days, in memory of the 215 children.
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New calls for action
A mother hugs her daughter during a May 30 vigil in Toronto for the 215 Indigenous children.
Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Since the Tk’emlups nation’s grim discovery, Indigenous leaders and advocates have pressed Ottawa for more action to help residential-school survivors and follow through on the TRC’s recommendations. These include:
More reading
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond: The discovery of a mass grave is just the tip of the iceberg
Deep grief fuels debut novel of Cree writer Michelle Good
Kanahus Manuel and Naomi Klein: ‘Land Back’ is more than a slogan for a resurgent Indigenous movement
Compiled by Globe staff
With reports from Jana G. Pruden, Andrea Woo, Jeffrey Jones and The Canadian Press
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