OTTAWA – A year ago Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation announced a gruesome discovery that confirmed what was whispered about but never documented.
The community announced that there was information from a ground-penetrating radar search in May 2021 that showed there could be as many as 215 unmarked children's burial sites at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. As a result of this search many more searches of the grounds at Indian Residential Schools across Canada were undertaken, with many communities reporting similar findings.
For more than a century, there were at least 150,000 Indigenous children taken from their families and forced to attend the schools.
“The intergenerational trauma caused by these tragedies is monumental and the suffering and harm is real,” said Bruce Weaver, who is an Indigenous member of the Indigenous Peoples Advisory Circle (IPAC) of the Green Party of Canada.
“Investments in healing are essential for these communities to rebuild,” said IPAC member, Dr. Cheryl Matthew, whose mother, aunts, uncles, and grandfather attended the Kamloops Indian Residential School.
“We support the call for massive investment into much needed healing and health supports for the families and survivors of this horrible experience, and to support the National Chief, Roseanne Archibald in her efforts to implement the plan for healing - “The Healing Path Forward: 2021 Federal Priorities for Strengthening and Rebuilding First Nations””, said IPAC member Corrina Serda.
The Green Party of Canada supports the Assembly of First Nations call for rights implementation and improved governance, restorative justice, education, health, infrastructure, economic development, environment, and housing. GPC also seeks to reform the First Nations Child and Family Services program, endorses implementation of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ Calls for Justice, and supports the investigations and commemoration of unmarked graves and other Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action.
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