“They were forced to cut ties with their families,” a student at the Collines d’Or school in Kamloops, western Canada, told AFP. With his companions, he recorded on Thursday a “sound postcard” about the tragic history of the residential schools run by the Catholic Church where thousands of indigenous children perished.
Following the announcement by the community of Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc of the discovery of 215 graves of children near the Kamloops Native boarding school, a few kilometers south of the Collines d’Or school, teacher Bonnie Antoine suggested that her students write a text telling the history of these institutions.
The discovery of the remains of hundreds of Canadian indigenous children in a former school residence in the town of Kamloops, in western Canada, where Aborigines were forcibly interned for almost 80 years, has once again exposed the painful wound from the racist past and the cultural genocide of the North American country.
On Friday May 28, Rosanne Casimir, head of the tk’emlúps te secwépemc, an indigenous group from the province of British Columbia, in western Canada, confirmed in a press conference that thanks to the use of penetrating radar Of land, the remains of 215 children had been located in the old school residence in Kamloops.
The bustle of the Collines d’Or school playground gives way to a solemn silence, crossed only by the singing of birds, when 18 students of about 12 years old take turns in front of the microphone.
“We, the French-speaking children of Kamloops, wish to pay tribute to the disappeared children of the former boarding school located in our city, in the undisclosed territory of the Secwepemc First Nation,” the text begins, quoted by the AFP agency.
In simple words, they then explain the abuse suffered by indigenous children separated from their parents and forced to live in these boarding schools run by the Catholic Church and the Canadian government, which sought to isolate them from their culture to instill in them Western values.
“The parents of these young people were forced to send their children to these schools, otherwise the government would imprison them,” they continue.
In total, an estimated 150,000 children entered this church-run system on behalf of the Canadian government. Many of them, after being separated from their families and forced to adopt a European name, suffered abuse and thousands of them disappeared, according to a report by an investigative commission.
“Their hair was cut off, they were forbidden to speak their traditional language and dance. They were also forced to cut ties with the families. The objective of these institutions was to ‘kill the Indian in the child,” the students denounced.
A history of suffering
Casimir told the EFE agency that the finding confirms the “oral history” collected by the group for several generations on missing children in the area, located about 350 kilometers northeast of the city of Vancouver, and confirms the suspicions about what happened in the Kamloops school residence.
The boarding school, a complex that at the time was the largest installation of the school residence system imposed by Canada on the indigenous population, began operating in 1890 and closed its doors in 1969.
The institution, located in the historical territory of the tk’emlúps te secwépemc and which was managed by the Catholic Church, each year sheltered up to 500 children from indigenous communities.
Kamloops was one of the thousands of school residences, the Canadian authorities have never confirmed the number of boarding schools that they created and that were managed mostly by religious organizations but that is estimated between 3,000 and 6,000, spread throughout the territory to assimilate the indigenous population.
Tens of thousands of children passed through them, an estimated 150,000 or 30% of the indigenous child population.
“News like this reminds survivors (…) of the tremendous losses they suffered while in school and after dropping out,” Tricia Logan, research director of the Center for the History and Dialogue of Boarding Schools, told AFP. for Indigenous People of Vancouver, the largest city in British Columbia, on the Canadian west coast.
And “in families separated by force, the repercussions are enormous for the survivors, their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” he adds.
The discovery of the remains through a geradar by the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc ethnic group, in Kamloops, caused a wave of shock and indignation throughout the country last week.
In protest, children’s shoes were placed in front of statues or churches across Canada, and ceremonies and candlelight vigils were held.
The federal parliament scheduled a debate on the issue for Tuesday night, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday promised “concrete” measures to help indigenous peoples.
Logan says the discovery of the remains uncovered a part of history that many Canadians are unaware of.
“There is a segment of Canadian society that denies the existence of these schools or that denies that what happened in them was neglect or abuse,” says the expert.
“I don’t think the news was a surprise to the survivors and their families, but the new revelations about these schools compound their trauma,” he stressed.
A cultural genocide
Indigenous children were not allowed to speak their languages or practice their traditions. When visiting their families on Christian holidays, some were unable to communicate with their loved ones due to the loss of their language.
Underfunded and poorly equipped schools were a breeding ground for diseases such as tuberculosis, influenza, and pneumonia. Survivors also speak of malnutrition and culturally inadequate nutrition. The internees were the scene of brutal punishments, rapes, abuse and torture.
“These schools had a notoriously high rate of physical and sexual abuse, disease, malnutrition and neglect that contributed to the high death rate,” says Logan.
In 2015, the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, created in 2008 to investigate and denounce the school residence system, concluded that the North American country used boarding schools as a tool to commit “cultural genocide.”
“For more than a century, the central goals of Canada’s Aboriginal policy were to eliminate Aboriginal governments; ignore Aboriginal rights; terminate treaties and, through a process of assimilation, cause Aboriginal peoples to cease to exist in Canada as legally, socially, religiously and radically differentiated entities, ”the Commission noted in its final report.
“The establishment of residential schools was a central element of this policy, which can best be described as ‘cultural genocide,'” he added.
To carry out its work, the Commission interviewed thousands of survivors from residential schools. Their testimonies describe the physical, psychological and sexual abuse that many of them suffered in the internees. Canada even used children to conduct “scientific” experiments on malnutrition.
The Commission also concluded that 1 out of every 50 children sent to school residences during the almost 120 years of operation of the system, around 3,200 children died in the institutions. In the case of the Kamloops school residence, the Commission confirmed the death of 51 children during the years it was in operation.
Mysterious disappearances
As a result, at least 4,100 children died, according to the latest updated figures from a shocking report published in 2015. The total number of children killed could even exceed 6,000, according to the commission.
The discovery of 215 bodies in Kamloops could be the first of many more, according to several experts.
The indigenous chief Harvey McLeod, from the Upper Nicola group whose territory is situated about 200 kilometers southeast of Kamloops, was one of the children who was forced to live in the Kamloops school residence, following the announcement by the Tk ‘community emlúps te Secwépemc of the discovery of 215 graves of children near the Kamloops Native boarding school, a few kilometers south of the Collines d’Or school, Professor Bonnie Antoine suggested to her students that they write a text together telling the history of these institutions.
McLeod told the Canadian television channel CTV how some of his colleagues disappeared from one day to the next without anyone knowing what had happened to them. “I remember one day they were there and the next they were gone,” he said.
As Chief Casimir told EFE, the indigenous population had long suspected what had happened to the missing children.
“Many indigenous communities across Canada have received grants or independently funded geo-radar studies. This is work they are starting on their own,” says the researcher.
“The task is enormous and much remains to be done for a national strategy,” he adds.
“We have a lot of oral history regarding missing children across the nation and on tk’emplús. We have information from generations that was shared, but never anything that was concrete and nothing that was documented. Now that we’ve confirmed it with penetrating radar from the field, we are going to think about the next steps, “explained Casimir.
Ottawa formally apologized to the survivors of the 2008 internees as part of a settlement of 1.9 billion Canadian dollars (1.3 billion euros).
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission collected several testimonies from indigenous people who affirm that the misery, alcoholism, domestic violence and the high suicide rates that still plague many of their communities are, to a great extent, the inheritance of the boarding school system. .
They ask Trudeau for more than good intentions
Following the announcement of the macabre discovery, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted a statement on Twitter saying that news of the discovery of remains at the former Kamloops school residence “breaks his heart.”
“It is a painful reminder of a dark and shameful chapter in our country’s history. I am thinking of all those affected by this horrific news. We are here to help you,” continued Trudeau.
But Casimir explained to EFE that he hopes the Canadian federal government will offer more than well-meaning words. “Of course we want the federal government to assume its responsibilities. Of course they have to be providing us with assistance,” said Casimir.
At the moment, and despite the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Canadian government does not have any program to search the old school residences for the remains of the thousands of indigenous children who disappeared in boarding schools and they are indigenous groups such as the tk ’emlúps te secwépemc those who assume responsibility for the investigations.
Indigenous organizations and political parties have demanded that the Canadian government search former government boarding schools for the remains of hundreds of indigenous children who disappeared in those institutions after the discovery of the mass grave.
Perry Bellegarde, national head of the Assembly of First Nations (APN), which represents Canada’s indigenous groups, requested on May 31 that each of the dozens of residential schools that the Canadian government established from 1870 to 1996 be examined for locate remains of children interned in those institutions.
For its part, the social democratic New Democratic Party (NPD) requested an emergency debate in the House of Commons on Monday to address the discovery of the remains of 215 indigenous children in the town of Kamloops, in western Canada, a request that it was seconded by the main opposition group, the Conservative Party.
The leader of the NPD, Jagmeet Singh, who had to stop the press conference several times to control his emotions, declared that “it is not enough that the federal government of the Liberal Party simply makes symbolic gestures. There are many other (mass graves) that they have to be found. Indigenous communities deserve justice and that each place be kept awake. “
United Nations experts on Friday urged Canada and the Vatican to conduct swift and thorough investigations into the discovery of nameless graves at a religious boarding school for indigenous children in western Canada.
“We urge the authorities to carry out prompt and exhaustive investigations into the circumstances and responsibilities of the deaths, including forensic analysis of the remains found, and to proceed with the identification and registration of the missing children,” the nine experts indicated.
The experts asked Ottawa to carry out similar investigations in all the boarding houses for indigenous people in Canada, indicating that the victims have the right to know the magnitude of all the violations that occurred.
“Justice must carry out criminal investigations into all suspicious deaths and accusations of torture and sexual violence against children taken to pensioners, and prosecute and punish those who perpetrated the crimes and those who hid them and are still alive,” they added.
The experts include the special rapporteurs for the rights of indigenous peoples, the exploitation of children, ill-treatment, and the chairman of the working group on enforced disappearances.
“It is inconceivable that Canada and the Holy See leave these heinous crimes without punishment and full reparation,” they noted.
With information from AFP and EFE
