They found more children, dead and buried, unnamed. No one is surprised.
Canada is a country built by grinding the bones of immigrants and leeching the blood of Indigenous people. It is a country whose foundation is genocide, rotted from the time it was constructed.
There are many examples of this genocide: from the amalgamation of a myriad of Indigenous nations into one to the confinement of Indigenous people and their movement to the indifference for their suffering. And, indeed, the residential schools.
We did not learn much about the residential schools in our own education. Of course, it is difficult to study history as you are living it.
The discovery of 215 unmarked graves of children whose families were likely unaware of their fates launched Kamloops, B.C. into national news last week. At TCE, we decided we knew enough facts about the story. The question now is: what can we do about it?
In the coming months, we will be relaunching TCE Radio and, later this summer, we will do a series on residential schools. Although this series will include information on the history of residential schools to an extent, the focus will be toward what we can do as settlers to help rebuild Canada’s foundation.
Indigenous people have talked about these stories for decades. They have been telling us what we should do, how we can stop hurting and start creating a new relationship with Indigenous communities whose lands we occupy. TCE will listen.
If you are Indigenous or work with Indigenous communities and would like to weigh in, if you would like to let us know your thoughts or experiences, if you would like to talk to us, let us know. Please email Harleen, the editor, at editor@communityedition.ca.
We are learning to be better allies so mistakes are inevitable; we are trying to create a platform for an ongoing conversation and we invite the community to engage in this work with us.
