Memorial planned for children buried at residential school site
A Kamloops First Nation will hold a memorial Monday for the more than 200 Indigenous children whose unmarked graves were found a year ago at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
Kukpi7 Rosanne Casimir, Tk'emlups te Secwepemc Nation chief, said there will be traditional Indigenous performances and drumming, as well as cultural and mental-health support for the daylong ceremony.
It will be held May 23 from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., at the residential school site in Kamloops, and is open to everyone. It's also a drug- and alcohol-free event.
In May 2021, Casimir announced that ground-penetrating radar had located 215 suspected unmarked graves at the site of the former school, in what she described as an “unthinkable loss.”
“It's something that shook everyone to the core,” Casimir said at a news conference Wednesday to announce the memorial to mark one year since the news. “It shook me to the core ... as a parent as a mother and I just, every time I think about that, or I see something on the news in regards to parents and children, it's very traumatizing.”
She said the memorial is about healing for Indian residential school survivors and intergenerational survivors, and a reclamation of Indigenous language and cultural revitalization.
Casimir added that more archeological work needs to be done at the site, and that excavation work is continuing. They have put together a technical task force made up of various professors, archeologists, members of First Nations and ground-penetrating radar specialists.
Following the Kamloops probe, hundreds more suspected graves connected to residential schools were found across Canada.
A 4,000-page report in 2015 by the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission detailed harsh mistreatment at residential schools, including emotional, physical and sexual abuse of kids, and at least 4,100 deaths at the institutions. The report cited records of at least 51 children dying at the Kamloops school between 1914 and 1963. Officials in 1918 believed kids at the school weren't being adequately fed, leading to malnutrition, the report noted.
Again Wednesday, Casimir expressed disappointment that Pope Francis will not visit the province during his trip to Canada in July.
Casimir said it was “truly disappointing ” he hadn't acknowledged invitations to meet and visit the former Catholic-run school, the first site where the revelation last year of unmarked graves made international headlines. She said they had expressed to the Vatican that travel is possible because the airport is only 15 minutes away and there is a hospital just blocks away.
“I am disappointed, but I do know that regardless, this is a very pivotal point in our history today,” she said at the news conference.
Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, are touring Canada this week but not stopping at the Kamloops school. Casimir called this a missed opportunity to take steps toward reconciliation.