This article contains details that may be distressing to some readers. The Indian Residential School Survivors Society operates a 24-hour crisis line to support survivors and families across the country. The Lamathut Crisis Line can be reached by calling 1-800-721-0066.
May 27 marks a grim anniversary. Three years ago Monday, hundreds of unmarked graves were discovered at a residential school site in Kamloops.
The graves of 215 children, some as young as three years old were found on the site of what was once Canada’s largest Indigenous residential school in Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, the president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs tells CityNews that this day will remain “deeply disturbing” for him.
Phillip says the initial discovery has triggered national and international awareness.
“There isn’t a single public school in Canada or in the United States that features a graveyard out back next to the football field,” he said Monday. “People have been forced to acknowledge this absolutely horrible chapter in the racist history of Canada.”
He says there are still people who don’t recognise the need for reconciliation.
“Canada is going through a transformative and ideological struggle at the moment, and the right-wing is vehemently denying the hard scientific evidence of the discovery of these unmarked graves,” he said.
However, he says more progressive Canadians are acknowledging the fact that residential schools were ruthless.
“Residential schools were a very brutal tool of genocide in an effort to deal with the Indigenous presence in this country, through assimilating us into so-called ‘mainstream Canadian society,’” he said.
Phillip says three years later there is still a need for more clarity for communities that are affected by the discovery.
“There’s the question of repatriation of those remains to the home communities,” he said. “But the people that are involved in this are doing a very credible job and moving carefully given the sensitivity of this issue.”
He says there are still racist ideologies that disrupt reconciliation.
“I’ve heard horrific stories where racists have actually attempted to dig up the lands where residential schools were situations in an effort to disprove the reality of landmark graves,” he said. “That’s absolutely disgusting.”
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission estimates between 4,100 to 6,000 children died of abuse or neglect between 1890 and 1996. However, Indigenous people, Survivors, and experts have maintained that this number is a significant underestimation.
-With files from Michael Williams, Hana Mae Nassar and Mike Lloyd.