Author of photos, Reuters
Kamloops Residential School was founded in 1890
In Canada, a mass grave with the remains of 215 children was discovered on the territory of a former residential school, created for the assimilation of indigenous peoples.
The discovery of a mass grave in Kamloops, British Columbia, was announced Thursday by a community calling itself the “People of the Fusion” (Tk’emlups te Secwepemc).
According to them, the remains belong to inmates of a boarding school that closed more than 40 years ago.
The autonomous government of Fusion People is currently working with museum specialists and the coroner’s office to determine when and why the children died.
Kamloops community leader Rosanna Kazimir said the burial was never documented by the school administration.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the discovery of British Columbia a “painful reminder of a shameful chapter in our country’s history.”
In the 19th and 20th centuries, residential schools operated in Canada, where Indigenous children and youth were placed for forced assimilation.
Kamloops Boarding School, founded in 1890 and originally run by the Roman Catholic Church, was one of the largest in the country and operated until 1978. In the 1950s of the last century, the number of its students reached 500 people.
What do we know about the remains found
Community representatives said the children’s remains were found during an investigation on the grounds of the orphanage using GPR.
“To our knowledge, the deaths of these children have not been documented. Some of them were not older than three,” said Rosanna Casimir.
Author of photos, Reuters
The study of the found remains has just started
The community has contacted parents of school children and hopes to submit preliminary findings by mid-June.
British Columbia Chief Coroner Lisa Lappoint told Canadian broadcaster CBC the inquest is at an early stage in the intelligence-gathering process.
News of the discovery of a children’s mass grave in Kamloops shocked Canada.
Justin Trudeau tweeted that it “broke his heart.”
Caroline Bennett, Minister of Indigenous Relations declaredthat such residential schools were part of a “shameful colonial policy” and promised that the government “would keep the memory of innocent dead souls alive”.
From 1863 to 1998, more than 150,000 children attended boarding schools for indigenous peoples, who were removed from their own families.
Residential school students were often prohibited from speaking their mother tongue and practicing their cultural customs. Often in these schools, children were mistreated and mistreated.
A Special Commission on Truth and Reconciliation, established in 2008, found that many children who went through indigenous institutions never returned to their home communities.
The commission’s report, published in 2015, called such a policy a cultural genocide. In 2008, the Canadian government formally apologized for the system.
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