That is stuck in my head - been there since late last week and it won’t leave. You likely know what I’m talking about. Last week, mass graves were found on the grounds of a residential school in Kamloops, B.C. The bodies of two hundred and fifteen children were found in the dirt. Two hundred and fifteen
children. By now, we all know broad strokes of the residential school system, but for some, that image is vague. It can be easy for people, especially non-Indigenous people like myself, to see what happened in Kamloops and feel that nothing like that could have happened here.
“Sometimes I think the government really doesn’t believe themselves, even though there was an apology by the Prime Minister,” Hardlotte said. “It’s real. This is evidence of what genocidal actions were done against Indigenous people by the government.”
Hardlotte said the PAGC supports the FSIN’s plan to conduct radar ground searches at Saskatchewan’s residential school sites, including the former schools in Prince Albert, Sturgeon Landing, La Ronge and Timber Bay.
This last location on the local list remains a very serious issue with the leadership across the North. Hardlotte said the events of recent days as well as the need for the federal government to act in accordance with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls To Action makes it imperative they support the survivors of Timber Bay School.
Editorial Yorkton This Week Finding the right words when writing an editorial is something newspapers are tasked with on a weekly basis, but sometimes it is simply impossible to find the right words to fit the situation. The news breaking last week that the remains of 215 children buried on the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School on the Tk emlups te Secwépemc First Nation in British Columbia had been discovered is such a situation. article continues below Obviously there is a great sadness that came with the announcement that 215 children taken from their parents to schools’ intent on stripping their youth of their First Nations identities, language, long hair, culture, parents all systematically stripped – would die and simply be buried on the school grounds and forgotten.