First Nations offered $8M to find, honour gravesites
The provincial government on Monday pledged $8 million in funding for Alberta First Nations to honour or research unmarked graves on sites of former residential schools on their lands. The announcement comes after the discovery in late May of 215 children's bodies buried on the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in B.C.
Kenney said the funding is meant to honour the lives of the young people lost in the residential school system and allow First Nations across the province to determine how best to do that.
“We understand that in some cases there are members of impacted communities who may not want to disturb these grave sites for spiritual reasons. Instead, they may want to erect permanent commemorations or some may want to do full archeological research,” Kenney said. “Whatever the choices they make, we will be there to support them.”
The Alberta Residential School Research Grant will allow each First Nation and Métis settlement across Alberta to apply for a maximum of $150,000 for their project. The deadline for proposals is January 2022, with funding to continue after that.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Rick Wilson said the grant funding is a good first step in showing the provincial government's ongoing commitment to reconciliation.
“In this country we've skirted the truth, even though residential (school) survivors and elders have been telling us for years that many children did not find their way home. Facing it is the start of our reconciliation with our Indigenous people,” he said. “I know people have been carrying around a lot of sorrow here and this new program is not going to change the past, but we can help to build a better future.”
First Nations and Métis representatives present agreed the funding is a good start, and that they will need to speak with their members to determine the best way forward and will work with other communities on the proposals as appropriate.
Chief Aaron Young of the Chiniki First Nation acknowledged the Indigenous holistic approach to healing, adding it's all Albertans' responsibility to pave the path forward.
“We give life for our children, we give hope for our children and at the same time we're reminded that we've come from a long history. A history where sometimes the chapters are darkened but yet the next page is always there,” he said. “There's a lot of healing that needs to be done, a lot of reconciliation that needs to take place, but this is what we consider reconcili-action.”
Young said ahead of writing a proposal for the grant, much collaboration and conversation must first take place among Nation members.
“Beginning with a ceremony for guidance, the Bearspaw, Chiniki and Wesley First Nations will work together in consultation with our Elders and community members to determine the best way forward. We are deeply grateful to the province for the hope and support they have given us at this time of grief and loss.”
He added it's important to recognize the lasting effects on Indigenous communities as a result of the residential school system.
“It is a sad truth that the individual and communal harm that occurred in these schools affects Indigenous families and communities today through direct and intergenerational trauma. It is unfortunate that this legacy of pain transcends time, impacting current generations of children and families, often with devastating results and leading, in part, to the current opioid crisis in our communities,” he said. “It is only by working together with all levels of government and other First Nations that we can address this serious and deadly side-effect of trauma.”
Chief William Morin of the Enoch Cree First Nation, who is also Grand Chief of Treaty Six Confederacy, said he's grateful First Nations across the province will be given the opportunity to embark on their own unique healing journeys.
“With this announcement, that story never ends, it keeps going and those open wounds are very much open at this time,” he said.
“We can forget about our differences at times like these, and whether you're a representative of the provincial Crown or you're an Edmontonian or a you're a government bureaucrat or you're from the Métis settlements or a chief from Treaty 6, 7, 8 or you're a survivor, we're still all treaty people and we all come together to do right by those young people.”