Friday, March 29, 2024

Port Alberni residential school gravesites prompt 26 calls for truth and justice

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WARNING: This story contains details some readers may find disturbing.

On Tuesday February 21st, the c̓ išaaʔatḥ (Tseshaht) First Nation held a conference to announce that 17 unmarked gravesites where Indigenous children lie had been found on the grounds of the Alberni Indian Residential School (AIRS).

The AIRS operated for 80 years from 1890 to 1973 under the Presbyterian Church and the United Church. 

The Tseshaht First Nation had assistance from the ‘?uu?atumin yaqckwiimitqin’ (Doing it for our Ancestors) research team. Their research determined that children were taken from over 90 different reserve communities across BC. 

Over 70 First Nations communities were impacted by the AIRS throughout the province.

The Doing it for our Ancestors research group scanned the ground on 10% of the 100 acre AIRS property. 

“I don’t want to just glance over this and just become another number,” said Ken Watts, Tseshaht First Nation Chief Wahmeesh, during the press conference held in late February. 

“No disrespect to our media, but this country has become numb and just thinks it’s another number. We kind of ignore and brush it off, acting like it’s no big deal just to move on.”

“For survivors this is the truth they’ve been sharing from the beginning, knowing children never made it home.”

Related:

Since the press conference was held to share the tragic news, the Tseshaht First Nation has compiled a list of 26 calls for truth and justice and sent it to politicians and religious leaders across Canada. 

Premier David Eby, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Presbyterian Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada all received the call to action. 

Here are their calls to action from the government and the churches which were responsible for the operation of the church:

Justice

  • Further legal investigations are to be done by an independent body consented to by Tseshaht. They are not to be led by Royal Canadian Mounted Police given their history of removing children from their homes and placing them in Indian Residential Schools (IRS), including AIRS.

Health

  • Establish an independent body, consented to by Tseshaht, to perform an investigation/inquiry regarding medical records. Explore the interconnectedness between Indian Residential Schools and Indian Hospitals.
  • Require ongoing commitment to Health and Wellness Supports for Survivors and their families.

Funding

  • Full funding for Tseshaht to hand deliver information to families of student deaths at AIRS so that it may be done in a culturally appropriate way.
  • Commit funding for Nations/caretaker communities to do more research on students’ deaths.
  • Create a Canadian or regional center of excellence for this research, scanning and investigative work for Nations to learn from one another (building off the BC working group).
  • Sign long-term funding agreements with caretaker communities over four or five years that are predictable, sustainable and flexible.
  • Increase funding to address drug, alcohol, mental health and trauma in our communities.
  • Develop an “intergenerational family impacts” initiative to support descendants of AIRS.
  • Fully fund security of potential unmarked graves and burials of the AIRS research sites.
  • Provide annual funding to host annual cultural events and ceremonies, such as National Indigenous Peoples Day, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation/Orange Shirt Day and all other cultural events Tseshaht hosts with respect to AIRS.

For Survivors

  • Creating space for AIRS survivors to have a special engagement with the Special Interlocutor.
  • Review the previous Indian Residential School settlement to determine the impacts on student deaths, if changes on any portions of the settlement are required and for Tseshaht to determine if a further review and further legal action is required. 
  • Canada, churches/faiths and RCMP consider an updated apology to AIRS survivors, their descendants and Tseshaht First Nation based on these new facts with respect to student deaths, unmarked graves and burials from AIRS and declaring this a genocide and cultural genocide.

Research

  • Review legal barriers to research and scanning both provincial and federally, including nation accessibility to medical health records, and develop an action plan so research can be conducted and concluded.
  • Address existing barriers with privacy legislation that limit accessibility of medical records and the CIRNAC database for Tseshaht First Nation. 
  • Support Indigenous data governance with respect to caretaker community information of AIRS for Tseshaht First Nation.
  • Ensure the Special Interlocutor can make free and unfiltered recommendations based on First Nations and survivor input into the final report, including Tseshaht First Nation and other caretaker communities’ access to records in seeking truth and justice. Medical and Nutritional Experiments
  • Revisit the medical and nutritional experiments done on the children of AIRS and across Canada as uncovered by researcher Dr. Ian Mosby. Fully fund research, investigation/inquiry and other work as required to bring justice to this issue which has completely fallen off the government’s radar. 

Education

  • Develop a “Truth for Youth” age-appropriate curriculum for K-12, focused on those who did not make it home from Indian Residential Schools. While there currently is an IRS curriculum in BC and across Canada, they were created before public knowledge of unmarked graves and burials at IRS.

Employment and Training

  • Support the development of training for First Nations on all aspects of scanning, research, and other important technical work, such as drone LiDAR, so that First Nations may someday do all this work themselves instead of hiring external companies. Infrastructure
  • Under Canada’s Indian Residential School Infrastructure Fund (previously $100 million announced for all of Canada):
    • Canada fully funds Tseshaht First Nation for the deconstruction of agreed to buildings (Caldwell Hall agreed to by Tseshaht) and pay all event costs for hosting such an event.
    • Canada fully funds the construction of a new muti-plex/community center, including a gymnasium, fitness gym, commercial kitchen and office space which replaces those of similar size and uses of current AIRS buildings (formerly standing main building, Ross Hall, Peake Hall and the still standing Caldwell Hall and Maht Mahs gym).
    • When or if Tseshaht First Nation has consented to, Canada fully funds deconstruction of the gymnasium from AIRS (now known as Maht Mahs).
    • Canada funds the full assessment, feasibility, design and removal of former AIRS utilities and infrastructure of water and sewer.

Memorialization

  • Canada, BC, churches and others fully fund all memorialization projects, including AIRS survivor priority of a memorial with the names of all students who attended AIRS with a gazebo and more (like those seen at war memorials) in Tseshaht territory.
  • Memorial fund for survivors’ headstones. Survivor paraphrased quote: “If Canada can help pay for headstones of war veterans, why can’t they pay for our warriors (Survivors) who had to go through the war of the residential schools?”

United and Presbyterian Church

  • In collaboration with Tseshaht First Nation, Canada and BC, provide necessary funding to Tseshaht, including, but not limited to: 
    • Construction and operations of a Health, Wellness and Healing Centre on Tseshaht territory to address the impacts of AIRS on survivors and their descendants.
    • Continued research and scanning.
    • Memorialization projects including Tseshaht’s planned initiative.

RCMP

  • Canada, in consultation with and at the consent of Tseshaht First Nation, will conduct an independent/inquiry review to determine the role of the RCMP with respect to AIRS.

Those in need of support may call the Indian Residential School Survivors Society toll-free at 1-800-721-0066 or 24-hour crisis line at 1-866-925-4419.

mm
Curtis Blandy
curtis@victoriabuzz.com

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