In Canada, search begins for unmarked graves of indigenous children

Canada’s dark past keeps haunting the North American nation, as a new search has gone underway for the unmarked graves of indigenous children at a notorious former residential school near Toronto.

Indigenous community leaders and survivors began the grim search on Tuesday for the remains of children at the former Mohawk Institute Residential School site in Brantford, Ontario – one of Canada’s oldest and longest-running institutions of that type.

Local First Nation community members said in a statement the search began following months of planning and training. “Although this will undoubtedly be a difficult process, Six Nations hopes that we as a people may heal together by finally bringing our children home,” the community said in a statement.

Mark Hill, the elected chief of the Six Nations of the Grand River, said complex search and analysis could take up to several months. “We have finally made it to this day where we are ready to begin the search,” he said. “Survivors have been telling us for years the stories of what happened to them in the so-called schools. This investigation and the important work that comes with it is for survivors and is led by survivors.”

“For many, this day has been long awaited, but also brings with it a stark reminder of the atrocities that were committed against our people in these institutions,” Hill added.

This is one of dozens of investigations underway to uncover the full scope of physical and sexual abuse committed against children in those schools.

Canada's dark history: Indigenous groups demand search for mass graves at school sites

Indigenous communities in Canada call for a nationwide search for mass graves at residential school sites.

Since May, Canada has been rocked by the discovery of more than 1,200 unmarked graves at the sites of church-run residential schools. For more than a century, at least 150,000 indigenous children were taken from their families and forced to attend the schools, many of which were run by the Catholic Church. The children were stripped of their language and culture, separated from siblings, sent hundreds of kilometers away, and subjected to psychological, physical and sexual abuse. Thousands are believed to have died of malnutrition, disease and suicide in those schools.

In 2015, a federal commission of inquiry into the institutions concluded that Canada’s residential schools’ system amounted to “cultural genocide.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pledged support to help the indigenous communities find more unmarked graves. But indigenous advocates say the government's current policies continue to disproportionately harm indigenous children in Canada.

US, Canada practiced ‘indigenous child removal’ to destroy tribes: Native historian

The United States and Canada have a long history of separating indigenous children from their parents and putting them in state-run boarding schools to destroy the Native tribes, says a Native American historian.

Indigenous communities are also calling on the Catholic Church to release all its records related to residential schools. Meanwhile, some have demanded that criminal charges be laid against the federal government, the church, as well as any individual abusers who are still alive.

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