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“From 1883 to 1998, nearly 150,000 indigenous children were forcibly separated from their families and sent to the government-funded, church-run boarding schools in an attempt to assimilate them. Once there, they were frequently neglected and abused. What happened at the schools was akin to “cultural genocide,” concluded a 2015 report from Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
It also found that at least 3,200 students died at residential schools over those 115 years — a much higher rate than for students elsewhere in Canada — though the commission contended that the number was probably much higher and merited further investigation.
In 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action. Six of them deal specifically with creating a register of the missing children and mapping their graves.
But nearly three years later, some say that a lack of resources and missing documents is inhibiting progress, increasing the likelihood that the relatives of missing residential-school children will die without knowing the fate of their loved ones, and that unmarked graves could be destroyed.”
– The Washington Post, Thousands of Canada’s indigenous children died in church-run boarding schools. Where are they buried?.
“Recently, the Frontier Centre ran a two-minute radio spot telling people that they haven’t been given the truth about residential schools. The Winnipeg organization’s ad disputes the harm done to Indigenous kids by residential schools, harm that has been passed down through generations. Needless to say, the paid spot and its message sparked outrage, and thankfully, the corporate owner of the radio stations that ran the ads has since apologized.
As someone who has survived the residential school system, with all my white privilege, I still bear enormous scars. And yet, I consider myself lucky. The school system wasn’t attempting to eradicate my culture, my spirituality, my language — which leads me to ask the question: if I have difficulty getting over this trauma, how can we expect Indigenous Peoples who spent time in the system (whether five years or five minutes) to grapple with the hurt?”
– Winnipeg Free Press, I’m a white residential school survivor.
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Download the 18″x24″ poster (.pdf), Indian Country 52 #42 – Boarding School Deaths.
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Indian Country 52
Indian Country 52 is a weekly project by David Bernie that uses the medium of posters that promote issues and stories in Indian Country.
Creative Commons License
This work by David Bernie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may download, share, and post the images under the condition that the works are attributed to the artist.
