A memorial ceremony to honour the 215 residential school students whose remains were found in Kamloops was held outside of Shingwauk Hall Friday.
The event brought together residential school survivors, education partners and members of the broader Indigneous community in order to reflect on what has been a difficult week for many.
“We need to have the world, the whole world, know about what the residential school was all about, and the role of the church, and the role of the government in bringing that about,” said residential school survivor Shirley Horn, an active member of the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association. “There’s a reckoning to be had in many, many areas of our federal government, and there’s a reckoning coming about for the churches who condoned much of this activity.”
“These people are criminals.”
Batchewana First Nation Chief Dean Sayers says the remains of the 215 residential school students found is just the “tip of the iceberg.”
Sayers called on both the Catholic church and Canada to denounce the doctrine of discovery, which was used as legal and moral justification for colonial dispossession of Indigenous nations.
“This can’t be kept under the cover of darkness. This needs to be brought to light. This truth needs to be told, and those that made these types of decisions need to be accountable,” said Sayers. “The murder of all those children and the ones yet to be found is criminal. It’s illegal. It’s against our law.”
Garden River First Nation Chief Andy Rickard echoed the frustration felt by many of the speakers taking the podium Friday.
“We cannot achieve reconciliation when you have this type of mentality. To me this is a buzzword that is tossed around loosely by not just government, but by organizations, institutions and other forums,” said Rickard. “We still face the same ignorance and lack of accountability, even with our children being uncovered recently.”
“As we chart a path forward from this, our communities, our people should not be burdened with the financial responsibility of investigating the grounds of all institutions. We didn’t take our kids away - the government, the church, the RCMP and others had a hand in this,” he continued. “Take it out of your budgets to properly bring our kids home.”
But Rickard sees a silver lining in all of this.
“For me, it’s those little ones in Kamloops that wanted to remind Canada, our people, of this horrific crime. For me, it’s our children reaching out from the spirit world, letting us know that they want to come home,” he said, fighting back emotion as he spoke. “They deserve to be home with their families, their communities and on their own lands. They don’t deserve to be buried in areas of these institutions.”
Horn acknowledged the legacy of the Shingwauk Residential School, an institution that buried some of its students in a cemetery located behind present-day Algoma University.
“It is sad that we have to go through this. We have been suffering for many, many years - and I’m talking about the people that have went before us as well,” she said. “There was a time when this whole front step was full of our survivors, we all came together to be together, because we had gone through the same horrendous treatment at the hands of our supervisors, our ministers, our priests and the people who are charged to protect us, who became the perpetrators.”
“Today marks a time for this remembering. Today marks a time that we have to, as First Nations people, bring more strength to our actions together.”