[zuluking]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

About to come out (may have already but have a friend highly connected to CBC so not sure this is public yet) saying another unmarked grave of 182 kids at the Ktunaxa First Nation near Cranbrook / Fernie has been found at a residential school.

The part that has me confused is how the media has not connected the dots back to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In 2015 (I believe), the TRC came out with exhaustive reports on the situation regarding cemeteries and gravesites on or near residential school sites. This document identifies all the residential school cemeteries, some used only by the school, some used by the school and associated church and community. It discussed which ones are still maintained through different organizations, which have fallen into disrepair, and those that have been lost over time to nature and the elements.

Regardless, we know that they are there and we know why they are there, thanks to this painstaking work performed by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. Part of their summary states: "Over about 140 years of operation at over 150 Indian Residential School locations, TRC research indicates that at least 3,213 children are reported to have died. This is a conservative estimate in light of the sporadic record keeping and poor document survival, and the early state of research into a vast (and still growing) archive. Most of these children died far from home, and often without their families being adequately informed of the circumstances of death or the place of burial."

The resulting Calls to Action document (2015) outlines many proposed actions to be taken by numerous parties to "redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation." This section address very specifically what is recommended for residential school cemeteries:

"Missing Children and Burial Information
71. We call upon all chief coroners and provincial vital statistics agencies that have not provided to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada their records on the deaths of Aboriginal children in the care of residential school authorities to make these
documents available to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

72. We call upon the federal government to allocate sufficient resources to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to allow it to develop and maintain the National Residential School Student Death Register established by the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission of Canada.

73. We call upon the federal government to work with churches, Aboriginal communities, and former residential school students to establish and maintain an online registry of residential school cemeteries, including, where possible, plot maps showing the location of deceased residential school children.

74. We call upon the federal government to work with the churches and Aboriginal community leaders to inform the families of children who died at residential schools of the child’s burial location, and to respond to families’ wishes for appropriate commemoration ceremonies and markers, and reburial in home communities where
requested.

75. We call upon the federal government to work with provincial, territorial, and municipal governments, churches, Aboriginal communities, former residential school students, and current landowners to develop and implement strategies and procedures for the ongoing identification, documentation, maintenance, commemoration, and protection of residential school cemeteries or other sites at which residential school children were buried. This is to include the provision of appropriate memorial ceremonies and commemorative markers to honour the deceased children.

76. We call upon the parties engaged in the work of documenting, maintaining, commemorating, and protecting residential school cemeteries to adopt strategies in accordance with the following principles:
i. The Aboriginal community most affected shall lead the development of such strategies.
ii. Information shall be sought from residential school Survivors and other Knowledge Keepers in the development of such strategies.
iii. Aboriginal protocols shall be respected before any potentially invasive technical inspection and investigation of a cemetery site."

I would also like to think that these discoveries are a result of following through on these actions, as the reports also discuss the various approaches to addressing those sites that have been lost over time, including the use of GPR. Also from the 2015 report: "Cemetery mapping can also involve near-surface geophysical techniques that include Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), electrical resistivity or conductivity, and magnetic gradiometer surveys."

This information is readily available and yet not connected to these stories. The reality is that we SHOULD be informed and we SHOULD already know about the terrible situation of child mortality at residential schools. We SHOULD know that many of these facilities have changed hands a number of times or vanished altogether and that it is no simple task to stitch the past back together. We SHOULD know that this is not a surprise.

Having said that, the general public is not informed, but is surprised and shocked. Overall, this is not a bad thing as it helps to provide a singular focus on the above recommendations and a better chance to achieve their goals - reconciliation. The unfortunate side effect to the mix of ignorance and shock is the pendulum swinging to the other extreme where it is no longer "reconciliation" being sought, but revenge. And this is where I would loop back to the my first thought: context. The media is not injecting the context into these stories and leaving us to draw our own.