Ceremony to mark sombre anniversary of Kamloops residential school discovery

Emotional support or assistance for those who are affected by the residential school system can be found at Indian Residential School Survivors Society toll-free 1 (800) 721-0066 or 24-hr Crisis Line 1 (866) 925-4419.

Almost a year ago, we learned of the discovery of more than 200 unmarked graves on the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, sparking searches and discoveries at other sites across the country and forcing Canadians to confront a dark legacy.

This coming Monday, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc is holding a daylong ceremony in Kamloops to honour and remember the 215 children whose remains were found using ground-penetrating radar last May.

The ceremony will start at 5:00 a.m. and end at 7:00 p.m., and Kúkpi7 Rosanne Casimir says it’s about coming together to heal and that members of the public are welcome and encouraged to attend.

“There will be a memorial here on May 23, which is the Monday of the long weekend, and there is a lot of planning that has been put in place to be able to honour the announcement of the unmarked graves,” she tells CityNews.

“It’s our cultural tradition, after a year, to truly honour and reflect and look at the next chapters, and what that looks like towards healing.”

Kúkpi7 Casimir expects a large crowd will gather.

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“We know that many will be travelling from all over Canada, as well as the United States, coming here to honour, reflect and to participate in these cultural protocols and those next steps.”

Survivors of the former residential school in Kamloops say the past year has been one of soul searching and grieving for lost classmates.

Percy Casper says he was at the school for a decade and the announcement last May left him reeling. The 73-year-old member of the Bonaparte Indian Band near Cache Creek says he took solace from strangers who approached him to apologize for Canada’s residential school history.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visits a memorial at the Eternal flame on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, June 1, 2021, that’s in recognition of discovery of children’s remains at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

“But it was up to me to revisit myself spiritually and say ‘Hey, you know, you have to help yourself. You have kids, you have grandkids and you have people,'” Casper said, adding the discovery of the burial site woke him up.

“It really re-triggered me, plus it really made me have a look at our nation and where we are at today.”

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The unmarked graves in Kamloops made international headlines, and lead to searches and discoveries at the sites of other former residential school sites across the country.

It lead to a year of deep reflection about Canada’s treatment of Indigenous Peoples that reverberated across the nation, to the Vatican and worldwide.

Last month, Pope Francis offered an apology to Indigenous delegates who had travelled to the Vatican, for the church’s role in Canada’s residential school system.

The Vatican has since confirmed the Pope will travel to Canada in July on an “apostolic journey” to Edmonton, Quebec City and Iqaluit.

The First Nations delegation meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican is seen in this handout image received April 1, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Vatican Media

The Roman Catholic church ran the majority of residential schools in Canada, many of which officially operated from the late 1880s through most of 1900s.

It is estimated 150,000 Indigenous children were forced into the system, meant to pry them from their families, language and culture.

Testimony from survivors and their families detail systemic punishment and sometimes horrendous abuse at the hands of residential school staff, leading to intergenerational trauma that has affected families and communities to this day.

Children’s shoes lie on the steps of Calgary City Hall as part of a memorial set up following the discovery of 215 unmarked graves at a residential school site in Kamloops.

Professor Geoff Bird, an expert on cultural memory at Victoria’s Royal Roads University, says after the discovery in Kamloops, many Canadians have had difficulty reconciling the findings with their perception of Canada.

“I think the majority of non-Indigenous people are shocked and traumatized by it, to the extent that things like Canada were muted last year, and I suspect it will be a little bit muted this year. That kind of triumphalism is not so absolute.”