One of the public expressions of grief have been the placing of children’s shoes and boots in public places as a memorial, such as on the steps of the Legislature in Regina and the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa. This was truly a tragic finding that has rocked the world of Canadian leaders, both indigenous and non-indigenous alike but the truth is, this has been a long time coming, and survivors of residential schools have spoken of this. What is different is that remains of these children have just now come to light, but if one paid attention at all to the stories from former students of these schools, First Nations communities have suspected the existence of these graves for a very long time.
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This week has yielded a near-unprecedented tide of national horror at news out of Kamloops that a ground radar survey has uncovered evidence of up to 215 unmarked graves of children who died while attending the Kamloops Indian Residential School.
While Canadians have used such words as “shock” or “disbelief” to describe the discovery of up to 215 unmarked graves of children who died while attending the Kamloops Indian Residential School, the truth is much more telling: It was never a secret that the sites of Indian Residential Schools abounded with the graves of dead children. Communities and survivors knew the bodies were there, as did any investigation or government commission that bothered to ask.