Our Message on the Deaths of Children in Residential Schools

The Directors and staff of the Fraser Basin Council express our deep sadness over the deaths of the 215 Indigenous children whose remains were found at the site of the former Kamloops Residential School, and we express our condolences to their families and communities. This heartbreaking situation is coupled with the terrible knowledge that at least 4,100 other children are known to have died within Canada’s residential school system, and that others went missing and were never found.

We acknowledge that multiple generations of Indigenous children were forcibly and wrongly separated from their families. These children lost everything — family, community, language, culture, personal safety and well-being, opportunities for happiness, and tragically even life itself. Words fail to capture the depravity of the acts inflicted on the children of residential schools and their families.

We need to listen to the stories of survivors to truly understand. All Indigenous communities in Canada today live with the harmful legacy of residential schools and other injustices of colonialism. This is not “in the past.” There are painful, profound and lasting consequences for Indigenous people, personally and collectively. We also know that while residential schools are closed, Indigenous children are over-represented in government care, and in higher rates of incarceration, homelessness, physical and mental health issues, and death.

The truth of deep wrongs, and the ugliness, must be confronted if there is to be a path forward. The calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission should be a priority so that governments, justice systems and church officials do all that is necessary, under the guidance of Indigenous leaders, to ensure the burial sites and remains of other Indigenous children are found so these children can be honoured and remembered in a good way.

The Fraser Basin Council stands with Indigenous communities in this time of pain and recognizes the need for a time of healing. We acknowledge the right to self-determination of Indigenous people to shape their own future and we support the full realization of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We believe there is hope for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to work together as friends, neighbours, families, communities and nations. There is, however, a journey ahead that will be painful and one that calls for deep, meaningful and lasting change.

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The Fraser Basin Council notes the tremendous importance of support services at this time, such as those of the Indian Residential Schools Survivors Society. This organization is available to help with counselling services and is also a place to consider providing a donation.

 

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