Memorial at site of 104 potential graves discovered at 2nd Canadian Residential School

Record ID: 1621024

  • Title: Memorial at site of 104 potential graves discovered at 2nd Canadian Residential School
  • Date: 13th June 2021
  • Summary: BRANDON, MANITOBA, CANADA (JUNE 12, 2021) (REUTERS) TRACKING SHOT OF ROAD AT SITE OF THE FORMER BRANDON INDIAN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL WIDE SHOT OF MONUMENT MARKED WITH THE NAMES OF 11 CHILDREN WHO DIED WHILE ATTENDING THE BRANDON INDIAN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL MEDIUM SHOT OF MONUMENT TIGHT SHOT OF NAMES ON MONUMENT WIDE SHOT OF TREES WHERE PEOPLE HAVE LEFT NOTES AND OFFERINGS TO CHILDREN WHO DIED AT SCHOOL 6, MEDIUM SHOT OF TREES WHERE PEOPLE HAVE LEFT NOTES AND OFFERINGS TO CHILDREN WHO DIED AT SCHOOL TIGHT SHOT OF MESSAGES LEFT ON TREE THAT SAY "IN MEMORY OF ALL THE CHILDREN WHO DIED HERE AND NEVER RETURNED HOME"
  • Embargoed: 27th June 2021 19:13
  • Keywords: Canada Catholic Church dead children graves indigenous boarding school unmarked graves
  • Location: BRANDON, MANITOBA, CANADA
  • City: BRANDON, MANITOBA, CANADA
  • Country: Canada
  • Topics: Canada,Crime/Law/Justice,Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA001EH8IRLZ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: An overgrown road lead to the site of the former Brandon Indian Residential School, in Manitoba, Canada where researchers, partnered with the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, located 104 potential graves.
    Snatched up in cattle carts and by bus, tens of thousands of indigenous children taken to Canadian residential schools run mostly by the Catholic Church lived a "paramilitary" lifestyle, waking early to pray, waiting rigidly in lines and enduring regular beatings, survivors said.
    The experiences of indigenous children, forcibly separated from their families under a government policy later described as cultural genocide, are back in the spotlight after a radar survey uncovered evidence of the remains of 215 children buried in unmarked areas on the grounds of a Western Canadian residential school last month.
    The system, which operated between 1831 and 1996, removed about 150,000 indigenous children from their families and brought them to Christian residential schools run on behalf of the federal government.
    A Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) set up to investigate the impact of the residential school system said in 2015 that children were malnourished, beaten and abused as part of a system that it called "cultural genocide."
    The discovery of the bodies at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in the province of British Columbia has reopened old wounds in Canada about the lack of information and accountability around the residential school system. The school closed in 1978.
    In 2008, the Canadian government formally apologized for the system. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Catholic Church must take responsibility for its role in running many of the schools and provide records to help identify remains.
    Pope Francis said he was pained by the discovery of the remains but did not apologize.
    (Video Shannon VanRaes; Production:Deborah Lutterbeck)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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