“What we have found is heartbreaking and shocking: 93 possible unmarked graves, 79 children and 14 infants have been identified so far,” said Jenny Wolferin.
Aboriginal community in western Canada announced Tuesday that it had identified nearly a hundred additional possible unmarked graves of children near a religious boarding school.
“What we found is heartbreaking and shocking: so far they have been detected 93 possible anonymous graves, 79 children and 14 infants”, said Jenny Wolfrin, chief of the English River First Nation, during a press conference.
“This is not a definitive number,” he added, explaining that other graves may be discovered.
A little more than two years ago, more than 1,300 child graves were found near institutions where aboriginal children were forcibly transported, an event that shocked and shamed Canada as it brought the country’s colonial past back into the spotlight.
This discovery was made after georadar surveys near the site of the Beauval Indian boarding school in Saskatchewan, Canada. According to the University of Regina, the boarding school buildings were destroyed in 1995 when it was closed by former boarders.
From the late 19th century to the mid-1990s, approximately 150,000 Aboriginal children were forcibly enrolled in 139 boarding schools across Canada, where they were cut off from their families, language and culture.
This dark page of Canadian history came to light after the discovery in the spring of 2021 of the first child graves.
These institutions, run by the Canadian government in cooperation with the Catholic Church, aimed to “kill the Indian in the child’s heart,” according to a documentary filmed on the subject.
In July 2022, Pope Francis made a historic visit to Canada, after he had already apologized a few months earlier to an indigenous delegation that went to the Vatican.
For its part, the Canadian government first apologized for the issue in 2008.
“We want Canada and the (province of) Saskatchewan to recognize their mistakes,” emphasized Wolferin, while adding that Canadian governments should “to recognize the cultural genocide and dehumanization of indigenous peoples.”
At the same time he called them “put words into action”complaining that the natives have heard too many apologies.
In 2015, a national commission of inquiry called the boarding school system “cultural genocide”.
Source :Skai
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