This week, at the site of a former boarding school in British Columbia, the western province of Canada, indigenous peoples across Canada are struggling to find the remains of more than 200 indigenous children, including the three-year-old.

The leader of the First Nations, Rosanne Casimir, announced (PDF format) On Thursday, the remains of 215 children were found on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Boarding School and said that “it has been confirmed that this is an incredible loss, but it has never been recorded.”

Casimir said: “As far as we know, these missing children are undocumented deaths.”

“Some people are only three years old. We seek a way to confirm that we have deep respect and love for the lost children and their families, and know that Tk’emlúpste Secwépemc is the last resting place of these children.”

Danielle Morrison, a lawyer for Anishinaabe, said that Aboriginal communities across Canada are feeling “collective pain and trauma.” “Currently there [are] She told Al Jazeera: “The fire was lit, the pipe was lit, and a ceremony was held to commemorate the lives of those precious children.”

The National Truth and Reconciliation Center at the University of Manitoba said in a press release: “This news is a clear reminder of the violence caused by the boarding school system and the trauma that communities, families and survivors have suffered so far.” statement.

For more than 100 years, Canadian authorities have forcibly isolated thousands of indigenous children from their families and forced them to participate boarding schoolIt aims to cut off the connection between indigenous families and culture, and to integrate children into the Canadian white society.

These schools were run by the church from the 1870s to 1996, and were full of physical, mental and sexual abuse, neglect and other forms of violence. They caused a cycle of intergenerational trauma to Aboriginals across Canada.

Kamloops Indian Boarding School was founded in 1890 and is managed by the Catholic Church. become This is the largest boarding school in Canada, with 500 children at the peak of enrollment in the early 1950s.

Morrison said: “The sole purpose of opening a boarding school is to take Indians away from their children.” “This is to absorb the aboriginals of Canada. In the words of a dean at the time, it was basically getting rid of’ India issue’.”

This is the legacy of Canadian colonialism. Nowadays, traditional educators must bear in mind, because Canada has always used education to harm Aboriginal students, families and communities. Teach us, we were wrong. I salute my family.https://t.co/4WOgcLBxDQ

-Alicia Elliott (@WordsandGuitar) May 28, 2021

In an online commemorative event on Saturday, Karen Joseph, CEO of the Canadian Reconciliation Charity, said that the discovery in Kamloops marked the first time that “whispering awareness has become a reality.” It is reflected in the survivors of the school.

“Although the children we are referring to go to Kamloops Indian boarding school, we know that all these children are not from Kamloops. This is the essence of boarding school, which is to take our children away from us. Hometown.” Joseph said.

“Sorrow is not limited to that community. This is the huge burden they are carrying now.”

“Cultural Genocide”

In 2015, the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission stated that the Canadian government had implemented “cultural genocide” and forced more than 150,000 indigenous children to attend boarding schools.

The committee said in the report: “What happened to relatives and where they rested troubled the family and the community.” “Throughout the history of the Canadian boarding school system, we have not tried to record the number of deaths in the entire system each year at school. Student number.”

The committee said that so far, it has identified more than 4,100 children who died due to illness or school accidents, but it is still trying to find other children.

Instead of thoughts and prayers @MinJusticeEn @CrownIndigenous @Min_IndServ @JustinTrudeau (JustinTrudeau) Stop fighting in court with indigenous children and boarding school survivors, and end the genocide of murdered and missing indigenous women. #Genocide #IndianPolicy #human rights

-Pam Palmat (@Pam_Palmater) May 29, 2021

The Canadian government formally apologized for the boarding school system in 2008, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday that the discovery of the child’s body “painfully recalls that shameful and shameful chapter in our country’s history”.

But observers pointed out that the survivors living in the school were forced to sue Ottawa, demanding compensation and accountability for what happened.

Last year, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News Reported The government spent 3.2 million Canadian dollars ($2.6 million) to fight the survivors of the St. Anne Indian Residential School, a school for abused residents in Ontario, over a period of 10 years.

Others also pointed out that although boarding schools may be closed, indigenous children are still disproportionately removed from their homes across Canada.

According to census data, more than 52% of children in foster care institutions in 2016 were indigenous children, and indigenous children only accounted for 7.7% of the country’s total population.

Joseph said at an online event on Saturday: “This is not a historical event.” “This situation continues to this day-except for the color of our skin, the loss of our children and the loss of our people.”