Indian Industrial School Cemetery to get provincial heritage status
The Saskatchewan government will formally designate the Regina Indian Industrial School Cemetery as a provincial heritage property on Wednesday.
A media advisory sent out by the government said Ken Cheveldayoff, minister of parks, culture and sport, will make the announcement on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the site on 701 Pinkie Road.
At least 35 students from the residential school were laid to rest on the land west of the city near the intersection of Pinkie Road and the railway. The graves are unmarked. More than 500 Indigenous children attended the school.
The City of Regina granted the cemetery heritage designation in September 2016.
Janine Windolph is one of the people working to get the site special designations.
She said it has been a long journey to this point but, “to actually achieve those results, there is a sense of disbelief, but excitement at the same time.”
News of the provincial designation, she added, is a “positive reinforcement” the work has been validated.
“If it was just a small group wanting designation, I don’t think we’d have the strength,” she said. “But because the community pulled through, it reinforced the value and importance of our application and I think that was really important to being successful.”
A heritage site designation is important in a practical sense to prevent the site from being commercially developed. But Windolph said it is also a way to ensure the children buried there are not forgotten.
“It’s not only an acknowledgment of the past, it’s connecting with each other in the present and figuring out a path forward to figuring out a healing journey,” she said. “This is one important milestone in the journey, but as we move forward there will be more steps to see the final goals of how the site will be maintained and commemorated.”
Windolph said the next step is getting federal heritage status designation for the site.
Putting in a commemorative stone, fixing up the site and revisualizing how the space can be accessed and used by the community are also on her agenda.