Warning: This post contains details some readers may find distressing.
On May 27, the First Nations community was shaken when the remains of 215 First Nations children were found in unmarked graves on what was once a Catholic-run Residential School in Kamloops, B.C. Some of the children were as young as three years old. On June 24, 2021, the discovery of 751 unmarked graves was announced near a former Saskatchewan residential school.
These are the voices of our First Nations pained by the loss, frustrated by systemic racism and oppression, and the stories of survivors.
On Sunday, May 30, Manitoba’s First Nations held a four-day ceremony in front of Manitoba’s Legislative building, honouring the lives of the 215 children who were found and honouring survivors for their resiliency and stories. Alayh says we need to listen to the experiences of Residential School survivors, and accountability needs to take place.
“The survivors here, their stories have been dismissed, and if they [the government] want to do action, they will stop in their tracks of the syndromes they are causing, the syndromes they created, such as the 60’s Scoop, Child and Family Services taking away children from them [Indigenous people] to disenfranchise them, to disempower them, and holding power over Indigenous people by taking their children away in
different formalities. [Meaningful action] is honouring them [Indigenous people], compensating them properly, reinstating claims. That’s just the tip of that piece to move forward. Coming, hearing, and listening at a grassroots level is one of the most important things to do.”
Hear from other voices of Manitoba: https://u-channel.ca/we-stand-together-voices-of-manitoba/
Indian Residential School Survivors Society
A helpline for residential school survivors can be reached at 1-866-925-4419.
The Indian Residential School Survivors Society is a British Columbia-based organization providing services to residential school survivors for over 20 years. It started by helping residential school survivors navigate the court systems and has since expanded to help residential school survivors and engage in community education for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. You can donate here.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of U Multicultural.
In 1978, the United Way and Winnipeg Foundation acknowledged there needed to be an independent organization to support the voluntary sector and volunteerism here in Manitoba. That’s where the idea of Volunteer Manitoba (VM) was born. Since then, the organization has grown to meet the community’s needs by connecting peopleContinue Reading
Finding content that feels authentically Canadian can take a lot of work. Being just north of the United States, a lot of culture and content comes into Canada through cultural osmosis. Add trying to find Black Canadian creators into that equation, and the task can feel quite daunting. Three contentContinue Reading
Scams and Frauds have been around probably as long as civilization has. In 300 BC, one of the first reported fraud cases was between the Greek sea merchants Hegestratos and Zenosthemis, who devised a plan to enrich themselves by taking out an insurance policy on their ship and cargo. InContinue Reading
