Residential Schools

Orange Shirt Day Is A Reminder Of A Genocide

October 2, 2021 Kenneth Deer, Montreal Gazette. Resist! Canada, Education, Indigenous Rights, Residential Schools

Some Canadians bristle at the suggestion that Canada has committed genocide. But the discovery of over 6,000 unmarked graves at residential schools has shocked Canadians into realizing that such atrocities occurred in their country. This is what we had to reflect upon during the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30. According to the United Nations, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Tsleil-Waututh Nation Lead Powerful Pilgrimage Walk In North Vancouver

October 1, 2021 Elisia Seeber, North Shore News. Create! Canada, Indigenous Rights, Residential Schools, truth and reconciliation

A sea of orange flowed down Dollarton Highway on Sept. 30 as members of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation community, and family members from Musqueam and Squamish nations, took part in a pilgrimage walk to commemorate the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The rain did not dampen the spirits of community members who gathered at the Tsleil-Waututh Reserve administration building at 9 a.m. on Thursday, to walk 8.5 kilometres to the site of the former St. Paul’s Residential School, now home to St. Thomas Aquinas Regional Secondary School. The morning began with drumming and song and an uplifting, positive feeling grew amongst the crowd as more than 100 members began the journey. It was also a sombre time for many members, as they retraced the steps their relatives took every day to “school.”

Protestors Toppled Statue Of Canada’s First Prime Minister

August 19, 2021 Peoples Dispatch. Resistance Report Canada, Indigenous Rights, Residential Schools, Statues

On August 14, protestors in Canada toppled a statue of John A. Macdonald, the country’s first prime minister. Macdonald was responsible for some of the most atrocious crimes against Indigenous people. This includes instituting a policy of starving Indigenous people in order to clear lands where they lived for building the Canadian Pacific Railroad.

Rosebud Sioux Youth Council Returns To Carlisle Indian School

July 16, 2021 Jenna Kunze, Native News Online. Resist! Education, Indigenous Rights, Mass Graves, Residential Schools

Carlisle, Pa. — Twenty-three-year-old Christopher Eagle Bear from the Rosebud Sioux tribe in South Dakota has been growing out his hair since he visited the site of the former Carlisle Indian Industrial School six years ago. The trip, made by the Rosebud Sioux youth council in 2015, sparked a group of young tribal members to initiate a tribe-backed resolution to bring home their nine ancestors who died at the school as children some 140 years ago. Six years after his initial visit, Eagle Bear’s hair falls down below the waist of his traditional regalia. He is back in Carlisle this week to bring his relatives home. The Army’s Office of Army Cemeteries, which oversees the former school grounds, has agreed to exhume the remains of nine Rosebud Sioux children and return them to the tribe on Wednesday, July 14.

Thousands March In Cancel Canada Day Actions

July 4, 2021 Taytyn Badger, Left Voice. Resist! Canada, Canada Day, Indigenous Rights, Residential Schools

On July 1, several thousand Indigenous people and settler and immigrant allies answered the call of organizations like Idle No More to protest the celebration of Canada Day and the ongoing genocide of Indigenous peoples. Cancel Canada Day actions took place across the land occupied by the Canadian state, from St. John’s, Newfoundland, in the east, to Victoria, B.C., including a march of thousands to parliament in Ottawa. July 1 of this year marked the 154th anniversary of Confederation, forming the “Dominion of Canada” out of the colonies of Upper Canada (now Ontario), Lower Canada (now Quebec), Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. From the start, however, the invasion of the West and expropriation of Indigenous peoples loomed large in the minds of the “Fathers of Confederation,” ranging from the reform liberal expansionist George Brown to the initially hesitant, though then supportive, John A MacDonald.

Statues Of Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth II Toppled

July 3, 2021 Joseph Guzman, The Hill. Resist! Canada, Indigenous Rights, Residential Schools, Statues

Demonstrators toppled statues of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II in Winnipeg Thursday as outrage grows in Canada over the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves of Indigenous children. Reuters reports a group of protesters gathered at the Manitoba legislature and pulled down the statue of Queen Victoria on Canada Day, an annual holiday that celebrates the Canadian Confederation.

First Nations Replace Canada Day Fireworks With Vigils

July 2, 2021 Willow Fiddler, The Globe and Mail. Resist! Canada, colonization, Deaths, Indigenous Rights, Residential Schools

In Keewaywin First Nation, a remote community in Northwestern Ontario of about 500 people, it won’t be dark enough to set off Canada Day fireworks until 11 p.m. But, this July 1, there won’t be any. Instead, there will be a candlelight vigil outside the band office, as the community foregoes its traditional holiday activities to honour the hundreds of Indigenous children and adults believed to be buried in unmarked graves recently uncovered at former residential schools in British Columbia and Saskatchewan. On Wednesday, the Ktunaxa community of Aqam, in B.C., announced that a preliminary search had discovered another 182 burial sites, which they said may belong to children who attended the nearby St. Eugene Mission residential school.

The Horrific Truths About Indian Boarding Schools Are Gaining Attention

June 28, 2021 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. Podcast American genocide, Colonialism, Indigenous culture, Residential Schools

Due in part to Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the horrific truths about what children and their families endured and the graves of the children who were murdered in the residential schools are being uncovered. The residential schools originated in the United States, which has yet to recognize their existence and what happened in them. That may be starting to change after many decades of activism to raise awareness and now an initiative by Secretary of the Interior Haaland. Clearing the FOG speaks with Matt Remle, an indigenous human rights activist about the history of the boarding schools, their purpose to enable the exploitation of resources and how they are connected into the bigger picture of genocide and colonization.

New Federal Initiative To Investigate The Legacy Of Indian Boarding Schools

June 27, 2021 Last Real Indians. Create! Haaland, Interior Department, Residential Schools, Transparency

Washington — In remarks to the National Congress of American Indians 2021 Mid Year Conference today, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced a Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, a comprehensive review of the troubled legacy of federal boarding school policies. Today’s announcement is accompanied by a secreterial memo in which Secretary Haaland directs the Department to prepare a report detailing available historical records, with an emphasis on cemeteries or potential burial sites, relating to the federal boarding school program in preparation for a future site work. This work will occur under the supervision of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. “The Interior Department will address the inter-generational impact of Indian boarding schools to shed light on the unspoken traumas of the past, no matter how hard it will be,” said Secretary Haaland.

Residential School Survivor Is Not Staying Silent

June 26, 2021 Amy Judd, Global News. Educate! Canada, Human Rights, Indigenous Rights, Residential Schools

A residential school survivor from Haida Gwaii, B.C., is calling for a class-action lawsuit against the Catholic Church to reveal the names of the children who died at the schools. Sphenia Jones went to the Edmonton Residential School where she said she was given a different name, Pauline, and was forced to stop speaking her language. She was 11 years old when she attended the school and was put on a train from British Columbia where she said it stopped multiple times to pick up other children from communities along the route. “There was a whole bunch of kids in there. They were stopping and picking up a bunch of kids,” she said. “Some of them died on the way and they just threw them off the train.” “Very scary,” she added. “Mainly because there were so many little kids that were younger than me there. Babies.

China, Allies Seek Probe Into Indigenous Children’s Remains In Canada

June 22, 2021 Stephanie Nebehay, Reuters. Educate! Canada, Indigenous Rights, Residential Schools

Geneva - China and its allies called on Tuesday for an independent investigation into the discovery last month of the remains of more than 200 indigenous children at a Canadian boarding school. The remains of 215 children, some as young as three years old, were found in British Colombia at the site of a former residential school for indigenous children, a discovery Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described as heartbreaking. "We call for a thorough and impartial investigation into all cases where crimes were committed against the indigenous people, especially children, so as to bring those responsible to justice, and offer full remedy to victims," Jiang Duan, a senior official at China's mission to the U.N. in Geneva, told the Human Rights Council.

Why We Must Confront The History Of US Native Boarding Schools

June 18, 2021 Naomi Ishisaka, Seattle Times. Educate! Boarding School, Education, Indigenous Rights, Residential Schools

When Patricia Whitefoot learned about the remains of 215 children found in a mass grave at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, she was devastated. The children’s grave shocked the world, but for Whitefoot, the horror hit close to home. As members of the Yakama Nation in Central Washington, Whitefoot’s family experienced firsthand the trauma of the U.S. boarding school experience, where Native American children were ripped from their families and forced to reject Native language and culture. Whitefoot, who was raised by her maternal grandparents, said her grandmother told Whitefoot about having her mouth washed out with lye soap for speaking her native language at the Fort Simcoe Native boarding school in White Swan, Yakima County, in the early 1900s.

Seneca Nation Statement On Discovery Of Indigenous Children’s Remains

June 2, 2021 Seneca Nation of Indians, Indian County Today. Educate! American genocide, Canada, Indigenous Sovereignty, Residential Schools

Seneca Nation President Matthew Pagels issued the following statement regarding the discovery of the remains of 215 children buried on the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, Canada. The school, which operated between 1890 and 1969, was once Canada’s largest Indigenous residential school, which hundreds of thousands of Indigenous children were forced to attend. Thousands of children are known to have died at these schools in the United States and Canada, and it is believed that the deaths of hundreds – if not thousands – were never documented. “Senecas are grieving along with the Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation in the wake of this recent discovery - another gruesome reminder of the treatment and terror that generations of Indigenous people suffered at the hands of foreign settlers on our own lands.

Sit-In To Mourn 215 Children Buried At Residential School

June 2, 2021 Dilshad Burman, Toronto City News. Resist! American genocide, Canada, Indigenous Peoples, Residential Schools

Toronto, Canada - A small group of people rallied Monday in front of the statue of Egerton Ryerson on the Ryerson University campus to stage a sit-in mourning the 215 children found buried at the Kamloops Indigenous Residential School last week. In an Instagram post, a group called X University, Indigenous Students fighting for social justice & human rights, (@wreckonciliation_x_university) said “we will be occupying the space until we meet 215 pairs of shoes.” The group has adopted ‘X University’ in place of Ryerson University’s current name in protest and to demand it be changed given Ryerson’s role in designing the model for residential schools. Those gathered were seen forming a circle around a drummer who was singing.

Kamloops discovery prompts call for framework to investigate mass graves

June 1, 2021 Simon Little, GlobalNews.ca Create! Canada, Indigenous Rights, Mass Graves, Residential Schools

The discovery of a mass grave at a former Kamloops residential school highlights the need for a formal, legal and human rights framework to investigate similar sites in Canada, says a B.C. legal scholar and advocate. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond heads the University of British Columbia’s Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre, and formerly served as the province’s advocate for children and youth. “A mass grave is a crime scene, it is not a historic site or a heritage site,” Turpel-Lafond told Global News. “It is well and past the time that Canada and provinces, they need to stop treating the finding of human remains of Indigenous people as sort of a heritage issue.” The Kamloops Indian Residential School is but one of many where Turpel-Lafond says Indigenous people have reported children disappearing, but have been given little or no state support to investigate.

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