By Mary Spring
We have all read and watched on television the horrifying discovery of the mass grave found at a residential school site in Kamloops BC. That site contained the remains of 215 Indigenous children, some as young as three years of age.
The residential school in Kamloops, B.C. is one of 139 such schools that operated in Canada between 1863 and 1996. In that time period, over 150,000 children were forcibly removed from their families and placed into these “boarding schools”. The parents, in reality, were powerless. In 1920, the Indian Act ensured that attendance at Indian Residential Schools was compulsory for Treaty Status children between the ages of seven and 15.
Children in residential schools were under the “care” of the school staff, churches, and the federal government. The deaths of these 215 children, as well as the mass grave in Kamloops, were never documented by the school’s administration. A grant by the B.C. government helped to pay for the technology required to identify the gravesite. Work is currently being done by the Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc First Nation, museum specialists, and the coroner’s office.
Canada has a responsibility to deal with the trauma caused by the residential schools. It will not be a simple task as, quite likely, this is just the tip of a very large iceberg. The bodies of the children from such gravesites must be returned to their home communities. We must support the survivors by locating and memorializing the children. Canada needs a national memorial site to recognize the children of residential schools and there should be a national day of mourning each year. Our children and grandchildren must be taught the facts about the residential schools. We all have a responsibility to work harder to learn more about, to advocate for, and to reconcile with Indigenous people.
What can we do locally to show our respect for these children? How can we educate our own children and grandchildren about such trauma? There are a number of ways that this can be done right here in our community.
#Remember 215 is a campaign that everyone can get involved in. Wear an orange t-shirt to show your recognition of the children. Place a teddy bear outside of your front door, much like we placed hockey sticks just three years ago when the Humboldt hockey bus crashed. Plant a tree or a shrub in your yard and name it #215. Our local schools and churches could plant trees, shrubs or perennials that will remind us of the children as years go on.
Submitted by Mary Spring
Sandhill Nursery has joined the campaign. Owners Tim Cantelon and Melissa Key are offering free perennials to the first 50 people (limit one per household) to order via the campaign page on their website—use the promotion code #215. Plant these perennials in your garden and when they return each spring, think of the children.
Our small community cannot solve the enormous problem that has been caused by the residential school system. However, we can recognize that we are aware of the problem, listen to the stories of the survivors, and then work toward not only education, but reconciliation.
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Brian Tapley says
This discovery is undoubtedly “Horrendous”.
I feel for these families.
There are two points that I’d like to make about all this residential school issue.
The first is that it was and still is impossible to send teachers to each and every little community in Canada. The ONLY way to try to add a modern education into these kids lives was to move them to the school. It still is as you may note that students have to travel and live at most universities in Canada in order to attend them. Very few students are lucky enough to live next to a university of their choice.
It is now technically possible to do a lot of teaching using remote communication and this changes things but it is not perfect.
Also, one has to ask the question of what is a “modern” education and what does it mean to a person in say our far north? Perhaps learning the ways of their parents, the hunting and survival techniques, would be considered to be a better and more applicable education than trying to pound algebra, foreign literature like Shakespeare and religion that even we don’t understand very well into their heads.
A bit of math and a working knowledge of English and or French might be considered useful but a lot of what was taught may well have been of little use.
Thus I would suggest that the idea of a boarding type school was a normal and practical solution in it’s idea.
The second would be that somehow, I, who knew absolutely nothing about this situation at all until a few years ago and had also absolutely no control or input into this “solution” at any point. Well now I’m supposed to feel guilty?
Don’t get me wrong here. I do feel guilty as a representative of our government but it is those government agencies and some religious leaders who take the blame for the bad things that happened here… not me personally.
As I noted in point one, the idea of a boarding type school for small northern community students was basically a good one in many ways. We just did not figure on uncaring and even predatory staff and our society’s guilt consists mostly of a lack of supervision of these schools for an incredible period of nearly 100 years it seems. Nobody even seems to have checked and for this oversight we now have to try to make it right, which of course is impossible for many of the abused and most surely for the dead children and their families.
Throwing money at the problem is the standard goverment way to solve issues. It is not their money that they throw so it is easy for them, but in many cases like this one money alone will not solve the problem.
Better we find a better way to include all these small communities into our society for the future in a kinder and more meaningful way than in the past. They are all Canadian and some of our politicians would do well to remember that not everyone lives in the GTA or some other major city. Commonly available services in these major cities are simply non-existent even just 100 miles out of the city and totally so in the far north.
Geraldine O’Meara says
My heart is saddened by the discovery of the 215 children who’s graves were found on the grounds of the residential school in B.C….and for the families for whom painful memories are surfacing as they face the reality of the violence and abuse of their loved ones.
The Canadian government is now taking responsibility and action in recognizing the horror of those events that took place over such a long period of time that went unnoticed. Now, the Catholic Church and the Pope as CEO of the church needs to do so as well for it’s part in what was a genocide of Indigenous people.
I, as a Canadian, also feel I must take my part in expressing in some way my sorrow and apology for what has happened and been happening during my life time. I support in any way that we as a Canadian people decide collectively to honour these young children, and all others yet to found.
Robin Yule says
There is no doubt that despite the good intentions and dedication of many or most teachers and staff at residential schools, there were many abusive, unkind and intolerant persons involved and that many children suffered and that damage to the indigenous communities was done and still lingers.
The discovery of the graves has caused a stir and it would be good to use that to educate me and others about what happened, why it happened and how the current situation can best be improved.
The existence of the graves themselves however is not a surprise. Deaths of children at the school would have been normal from measles, mumps, smallpox etc. and every school would have had to have a graveyard. This is not, in itself, evidence of anything wrong.
What I do find disturbing is that records are being withheld and that this withholding is allowed.
To get a petter perspective, other things I would like to know:
How many of the deaths were from measles, mumps, smallpox etc.? Was the rate of such deaths higher or lower than in the communities that the children came from? Is there any evidence that deaths were caused by abuse or malnutrition?
Were the parents of each child were informed of the death at the time?
Was it possible or practical to transport a body back home at that time?
Were the graves always unmarked or were the original markers made of wood that is now long gone? There is no doubt in my mind that there are numerous abandoned or no longer used cemeteries in Muskoka with unmarked graves that could be discovered with modern technology but no one would find any of that unusual or alarming.
In short, I would like more facts and less hysteria.