Image source,Reuters
Canada is “unearthing” a dark and little-known history, a public boarding school scandal for aboriginal children gradually exposed to the sun. Once upon a time, aboriginal children were forcibly taken away from their parents and sent to boarding schools on the grounds of cultural integration and naturalization… Many years later, one after another unnamed mass graves were found underground in those schools that had been closed, and it is believed that the graves were buried. Corpse of his child.
Indigenous communities in Canada have been asking for years, what happened to the children who lost contact with their families and tribes from the second half of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century?
The beginning and end of the scandal
In May 2021, 215 child corpses were found in British Columbia (British Columbia) on the west coast of Canada. They were buried in an unnamed mass grave. The building where the tomb was located was once the largest of all 130 Aboriginal boarding schools. .
In 2015, the Canadian federal government published a report on the investigation of aboriginal boarding schools nationwide from the second half of the 19th century to the 20th century. However, mass graves and corpses were found on the west coast, providing for the first time evidence of the whereabouts of many aboriginal children who “disappeared” in boarding schools that year.
The news came out and the world was shocked. Various places began to search for similar mass graves, and more relevant information appeared in the media.
During the implementation of the Aboriginal children’s boarding system, how many students died, where they were buried, and how to deal with their funeral affairs are still an unfinished puzzle with many blanks.
But the truth is gradually emerging.
Image source,Reuters
The famous former boarding school where 215 children’s corpses were found in the unnamed mass graves in May 2021
A brief history of the boarding school system
There are about 1.4 million aboriginal people in Canada, accounting for 4% of the total population. They mainly include First Nations, Inuit and Métis. Among them, the number of First Nations is the largest. 850,000 people are actually “Indians” in Canada.
In the 19th century, Canadian authorities believed that it was necessary to naturalize aboriginal people and allow them to accept Christianity and European culture. One of the ways to achieve this goal was to start with children’s education. Boarding schools receive European-style education.
It is mandatory for aboriginal children to leave the family tribe to go to boarding school. If the child does not go to the boarding school, their parents will be prosecuted and convicted.
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Aboriginal children in boarding schools in 1950
From 1874 to 1996, more than 150,000 aboriginal children were registered in 130 public boarding schools across Canada, from the three tribes of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit. Thousands of them have never returned to their hometown after enrolling in school.
The school stipulates that students must convert to Christianity, learn English or French, and strictly prohibit the use of their own tribal language.
These boarding schools are jointly run by the government and the church. Some scholars found that at that time, local churches in Canada and European churches had donated a lot to boarding schools.
The church has played a key role in the establishment and maintenance of the boarding school system. According to data from the Indian Boarding School Survivors Association (IRSSS), as many as 70% of the boarding schools operated by the Roman Catholic Church at the time.
Chronicles of the Boarding School System
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- 1883 — The first prime minister of Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald (Sir John A Macdonald) authorized the establishment of a boarding school system, with the cooperation of the Christian Church and the federal government, with the purpose of assimilating the indigenous people in the country.
- 1920 — A compulsory boarding education system has been implemented. Aboriginal children aged 7 to 15 have left their parents to enter boarding schools. Many parents cannot bear their children leaving home, but they have to let go under the pressure of legal sanctions.
- 1960 — The boarding school began to close gradually, but the process was very slow. The last aboriginal boarding school closed in 1996. Over the past 30 years, the psychological and cultural impact of such institutions on indigenous children has been continuously questioned and scrutinized.
- 2008 — The then Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, publicly apologized for the boarding school system; there were more than 130 such institutions for indigenous children in the country. He said: “Today, we realize that this assimilation policy is wrong, has caused serious harm, and has no place in our country.”
- 2015 — The Canadian Government’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) released the last investigation report on the historical issues of boarding schools, which clearly pointed out that the policy supporting the entire system is tantamount to “ethnic cultural extermination.” The report recommends that the authorities allocate funds to search for more graves of the same kind to mourn those children who died in other towns.
- 2021 — The Tk’emlúps te Secwe pemc First Nations of British Columbia (British Columbia) on the west coast of Canada announced that preliminary investigations using ground-penetrating radar technology have found that there are approximately 215 unnamed graves underneath the site of a former boarding school. Other aboriginal tribes in Canada have subsequently started similar searches and investigations.
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In 2008, former Prime Minister Harper and one of the indigenous leaders, Phil Fontaine (Phil Fontaine)
Restore the historical truth
The survey report released by the Canadian Federal Government in 2015 is of epoch-making significance.
The report detailed the various malfeasance, negligence, and failures of Aboriginal children’s boarding schools in ensuring the safety of students and providing nursing care, as well as the acquiescence and even assistance of the church and government departments.
Boarding school students are often punished severely or even sadistically. The poorly equipped dormitories have insufficient heating in winter, are dirty and poor, and there are no professional medical staff to treat them when they are sick.
According to the report, this is mainly due to the government’s lowering of costs and cuts in funding.
Image source,Getty Images
The new discovery has caused repercussions across Canada. The United Nations and Human Rights Watch have issued statements on this.
Corporal punishment and sexual abuse are common, causing many students to flee. Accidental deaths caused by dereliction of guardianship are not uncommon. In 1945, the mortality rate of children in aboriginal boarding schools was five times that of Canadian school-age children, and it was doubled in the 1960s.
The Manitoba police in central Canada announced in July 2021 that it had opened an investigation into a suspected criminal offence at a local former aboriginal boarding school as early as 10 years ago.
The Kamloops Boarding School (1890-1969) in British Columbia had as many as 500 students at one time, all of whom came from aboriginal tribes thousands of kilometers away. From 1969 to 1978, it became a dormitory for foreign students entering the local school.
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Event triggered commemorative events across Canada
According to data from the National Truth and Reconciliation Center, 50 of the student bodies unearthed in this tomb have been identified. They died between 1900 and 1971, and the identities of the other 165 cannot be determined without archived information.
In 2015, TRC issued an initiative, putting forward 94 actions, including 6 recommendations on missing children and cemeteries. Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau pledged to “fully implement” all recommendations.
- According to the statistics of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 10 projects have been completed, 64 projects are in progress, and 20 projects have not yet started.
- The National Truth and Reconciliation Center of Canada seeks authorization to investigate the issue of unmarked cemeteries
- In 2019, the government promised to provide 33.8 million Canadian dollars to develop and maintain a student death registry and establish an online registry for the boarding school cemetery.
- So far, the Canadian National Truth and Reconciliation Center has stated that they have received only a small portion of the money
However, indigenous community leaders and rights organizations expressed that they would listen to their words and watch their deeds, hoping to see more practical actions.
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The First Nation community, one of Canada’s aboriginal tribes, was vigil by unmarked graves; these tombs are believed to belong to students who had been in aboriginal children’s boarding school
In June 2021, Prime Minister Trudeau reiterated that he was “shocked” by the boarding school history and promised to take “concrete actions”, but did not provide details.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the three major Christian denominations apologized for the role of the church in the dark history of Canadian aboriginal boarding schools.
In 2017, Trudeau asked Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church to apologize for the role of the church in managing Canadian boarding schools, but the Vatican rejected it.