This was indicated by radar and drone images from the former Grouard Mission around 370 kilometers northwest of Edmonton, explained Sydney Halcrow from the indigenous community of the Kapa’weno First Nation at a press conference.
“Our little warriors have been waiting for us to find them. Now we will make sure they can rest in peace,” he said on Tuesday, according to Canadian television CBC. The finds confirm reports from survivors about the miserable conditions in the boarding school, which was run from 1894 to 1961. Now additional investigations should show whether there were other graves and how many children died exactly.
Last summer, hundreds of unmarked graves and the remains of children’s bodies were discovered at at least four former boarding schools for indigenous children. From the 17th century to the 1990s, indigenous children who had been snatched from their families were housed in the “residential schools”, most of which were run by the Catholic Church. There they had to learn the traditions of the European colonialists in order to forget their own languages and cultures. Violence and sexual abuse were the order of the day.
The finds had led to numerous protests in Canada and also caused horror and outrage far beyond the country’s borders. UN human rights experts had demanded comprehensive clarification from the government of Canada and the Vatican. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had urged Pope Francis to come to Canada and apologize.
Source: Nachrichten
