First Published: 1:32 PM PDT, June 1, 2021
The discovery in interior British Columbia last month is leading to renewed trauma, grief and calls for accountability among Indigenous communities across the country.
Flags across Canada are being flown at half-mast after 215 bodies of Indigenous children were discovered last month buried near a former British Columbia residential school, a church-run education system in operation for more than 100 years that forced kids as young as 3 years old from their families and communities for the purpose of assimilation.
Since the discovery, prayer vigils and memorials led by Indigenous leaders from different bands have sprung up both locally and across the country. Mi kmaw jingle dancers performed Monday morning across the country in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and hundreds of children’s shoes, moccasins and stuffed animals were left on the steps of the legislature building in nearby Saskatchewan.
When Jackie Bromley, 70, heard that the remains of 215 children had been found in B.C., she had flashbacks to her time at St. Mary’s Residential School on the Blood Reserve in southern Alberta.
Supernant, who is Métis and a descendant of the Papaschase First Nation, is an anthropology professor at the University of Alberta. She and her team use ground-penetrating radar equipment to help Indigenous communities survey burial grounds across the Prairies.
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An event took place on March 31 over Zoom that discussed the violence that continues to occur against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people. At the event spoke Dr. Karine Duhamel, director of research for the national inquiry into the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG), and Josie Nepinak, executive director of Awo Taan Healing Lodge and chair of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Committee. In addition to the invited speakers, Elder Jackie Bromley and Dr. Michael Hart, the vice-provost of Indigenous engagement, also spoke out on the issue. The event was moderated by Bobbi-Jo Amos, reconciliation and environment coordinator of the Women’s Centre of Calgary, and Dr. Nancy Janovicek, associate professor in the department of history at University of Calgary.