Credit, EPA
Kamloops school in 1937: the site could accommodate up to 500 children
From 1863 to 1998, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were separated from their families and placed in boarding schools across Canada.
These state-run schools, mostly operated by the Catholic Church, were part of a policy of cultural assimilation of indigenous children.
Minors cannot speak their language or practice the culture of their society. Many were persecuted and subjected to abuse.
“Cultural Genocide”
Christian churches played an important role in establishing and operating these schools.
The Catholic Church, in particular, is responsible for operating up to 70% of the 130 boarding schools, according to the Society of Survivors of Indigenous Residential Schools.
Credit, Getty’s image
Children in a boarding school for indigenous minors in Canada in 1950
Children were asked to leave their mother tongue, speak English or French and convert to Christianity.
Joseph Maud was one of those children. In 1966, at the age of five, he entered Pine Creek Boarding School in Manitoba, Canada.
Students are expected to speak English or French, but Maud only speaks the language of her people, Ojibwa.
If students spoke their own language, their ears were tugged and their mouths washed with soap, Maud told the BBC in 2015, when a Truth and Reconciliation Commission report on the matter was published.
“But the biggest pain was being separated from my parents, my cousins and my aunts and uncles,” Maud told the BBC.
The report describes the government-led policies as “cultural genocide”.
“These steps form part of a coherent policy to eliminate Aboriginal people as a distinct people and assimilate them into the Canadian mainstream against their will,” the document said.
“The government of Canada is pursuing this policy of cultural genocide seeking to remove its legal and financial obligations to Aboriginal people and to gain control over their lands and resources,” the report notes.
Credit, COLE BURSTON
Kamloop school survivor Evelyn Camille poses next to a memorial to the Kamloop victims
Poor condition and misuse
The report details serious failures in the care and safety of children, with the support of the church and government.
Students are often housed in poorly constructed, poorly heated and unsanitary structures, according to the report. Many do not have access to trained doctors to accompany them.
The work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission shows that around 6,000 children died while they were in boarding schools. Their bodies are rarely returned to their families. Many are buried in unnamed graves.
The Missing Children Project documents the deaths and burial sites of many of these minors. In a recent survey, the initiative revealed that it had identified places where more than 4,100 children were buried.
Many of those who survive have to live with memories of the emotional, physical, and even sexual abuse.
Maud told the BBC in 2015 that she had to kneel on the chapel’s concrete floor because the nuns said “it’s the only way for God to hear”.
“I was crying on my knees and I thought, when will this end? Someone help me,” she reported.
He remembered that he had wet his bed once. A nun on duty in his room then rubbed his face in his own urine.
“It’s very demeaning and embarrassing. Because I share a hostel with 40 other children,” he said.
In 2008, the Canadian government officially apologized for past actions.
Credit, Reuters
Some Canadians wear children’s shoes in memory of children who have died at school in the past
Discovery at Kamloops School
The Kamloops School operated between 1890 and 1969, in the town of the same name, in the province of British Columbia, in the far west of Canada. It was the largest in this segment, known as the Indigenous School System.
Under Catholic administration, it had 500 students during its longest occupation, in the 1950s.
Late last month, a mass grave was found in which at least 215 bodies of indigenous children were found. The incident caused outrage throughout the country.
The discovery was made on the initiative of the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc indigenous people in the area, who reportedly used ground penetrating radar during a survey of the site.
Credit, Reuters
There are about 130 boarding schools for Indigenous children in Canada. In the photo, the facade of Kamloops
Museum experts and a coroner are helping to determine the cause and time of death of the children, which is so far unknown.
A final report on the findings is expected to be released in mid-June, and preliminary conclusions may be revised. Indigenous leaders and advocates predict the number will increase from 215.
To this day, there is no complete picture of the number of children who died, the circumstances of their death, or where they were buried. Initiatives like the country’s Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc help bring together parts of that history.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the situation a “painful reminder” of “a shameful chapter in our country’s history”.
Trudeau called on the Catholic Church to take “accountability” for its role in Indigenous schools.
The government took over the Kamloops School in 1969 and used it as a residence for local students until 1978, when it was closed.
“We need to have the truth before we can talk about justice, healing and reconciliation,” Trudeau said.
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