`Exhumation to memorialization' begins
Remains of Kamloops residential school victims could soon be headed home
KAMLOOPS — After a year of grieving since the detection of 215 suspected unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, a new phase begins in the journey of the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation — bringing the children home.
The old apple orchard where evidence of the graves was found by ground-penetrating radar last May could soon be the site of an archeological dig and work to exhume remains, said Kúkpi7, or Chief, Rosanne Casimir.
“This is something that has not happened in the history here in Canada,” she said at news conference Wednesday. “There's no set of guidelines, no checklist.”
To dig or not to dig has been one of the most fraught questions surrounding the issue of unmarked graves at residential schools. No consensus has emerged among survivors, with some seeing exhumation as a process that could help lay victims properly to rest, while others don't want them disturbed.
As for suggestions that the site needs to be treated as a crime scene, the RCMP say they opened a file on the case, but there is no continuing investigation.
“We know that when we start doing some of the archeological work, we know that, one, when we do that it's going to be about communication,” Casimir said. “It's going to be about respect and honour and dignity. It's going to be about connecting anyone that we may find to their home communities.”
Casimir pledged to keep her Nation's members informed about progress and findings at the site.
She described the Nation's approach as a continuing process of “exhumation to memorialization,” which would involve finding evidence of remains and linking them to home communities.
“We are utilizing science to support each step as we move forward,” she said.
“We do have a technical task force that has been put together that consists of various professors as well as technical archeologists and we are continuing to work with a ground-penetrating radar specialist as well.”
The Nation announced Thursday that ground-penetrating radar would be used again this week to search another section of the grounds surrounding the former residential school.
Kamloops school survivor Garry Gottfriedson said he struggled over whether the site should be dug up or left alone, but he leaned toward securing evidence to bring solace to him, any buried children and the Nation.
“If you can imagine something gnawing at your whole soul for your whole life, and then, finally, there's some peace of mind,” he said. “That's how it is for me. This is one way in which part of that ugly history can be put to rest.”
Gottfriedson, 69, said he attended the Kamloops residential school from kindergarten to Grade 3 between 1959 and 1963, where he witnessed abuse, but was largely protected by his older brothers at the school.
The internationally known poet said eight other siblings, mother and up to 30 aunts, uncles and cousins from his ranching and rodeo-riding family attended the school.
“All of us that were at that residential school already knew that they (bodies) were there,” said Gottfriedson, who provides counsel and curriculum advice to Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops on Secwépemc Nation protocols and cultural practices.