More suspicious graves discovered near Canadian Indigenous school
An indigenous community in western Canada has discovered nearly 100 suspected unmarked graves near the site of a former residential school.
In 2021, communities across Canada documented more than 1,300 unmarked graves near religious educational institutions, which welcomed Indigenous children for more than a century as part of a Canadian policy of forced assimilation .
– What we discovered was heartbreaking and devastating, said Jenny Wolverine, leader of the indigenous group English First Nation, at a press conference.
– So far there are 93 potential unmarked graves, 79 children and 14 infants.
The discoveries, near the site of what was the Beauval Indian Residential School, in the province of Saskatchewan, were made using ground penetrating radar. Wolverine does not rule out that this number could increase further.
According to the University of Regina, the residential school was demolished by former students after it closed in 1995.
Between the late 19th century and the mid-1990s, some 150,000 Indigenous children were forcibly sent to 139 residential schools across Canada, where they were cut off from their families, language and culture.
This dark side of Canadian history was brought to light after the first discovery of children’s graves in spring 2021.
Administered by the Catholic Church and the Canadian government, the schools had the explicit goal of “killing the Indians.”
In April 2022, Pope Francis apologized to a delegation of indigenous peoples at the Vatican, ahead of an official papal visit to the country.
Ottawa, for its part, presented an official apology to its indigenous peoples for the first time in 2008.
– We heard “sorry,” Wolverine says, and instead asks that the words be translated into action.
In 2015, a National Truth and Reconciliation Commission declared the forced recruitment of Indigenous children into the residential school system as “cultural genocide.”
“Ireland’s National Public Service Media” reported the case first.
“Explorer. Food advocate. Analyst. Freelance bacon practitioner. Future teen idol. Proud pop culture expert.”
