WHAT WILL OUR LEGACY BE?

The excavation of Indigenous children’s graves at residential schools has flooded my thoughts in recent days. The residential school systems took Indigenous children from their families, and when those children died from disease, abuse or neglect, they were buried without note or record. Even though Indigenous oral history has recorded such graves, passing the grief down to the next generation, only now are the rest of Canadians acknowledging the magnitude of the loss. The last residential school closed in 1996, but what have we, as non-Indigenous Canadians, done to change the legacy started by those “schools”? I worry it’s not much. There are Indigenous children who have never had clean drinking water. As of November 2020, 41 communities were still under boil water advisories. The suicide rate is so high in some Indigenous communities locals refer to a “suicide season”. The 2011 census said the suicide rate among Indigenous populations was twice that of the rest of Canada. The report from the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls said thousands of women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA have gone missing or were murdered, but the exact number isn’t known. The report concluded it was because many deaths were not recorded over the years or families didn’t feel safe to come forward to report their missing loved ones. Is this going to be our legacy? Children who will never know what it’s like to have clean water from a tap? Families who will never know the fate of their missing loved one? Indigenous heritage was taken from the children in the residential school systems. The disconnection, abuse and emotional neglect continue to impact individuals and communities today. Despite the money and talk doled out to help these communities, no one seems to be held accountable as women continue to go missing or water continues to be undrinkable.

Will this be our legacy?

Glynis Middleton, Charlottetown, P.E.I.