The Battlefords Regional Community Coalition, consisting of the mayors of North Battleford, Battleford and five surrounding First Nations, has issued a statement mourning the loss of 215 children at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.
Their statement, in full, is reprinted here:
鈥淎s community leaders and elected heads of our respective First Nations and municipal governments, Chief Whitecalf, Chief Okemow, Chief Moccasin, Chief Swiftwolfe, Chief Semaganis, Mayor Leslie, and Mayor Gillan of the Battlefords Regional Community Coalition mourn the loss of 215 children at Kamloops Indian Residential School. We grieve with Tk鈥檈mlups te Secwepemc First Nation and all other First Nations, M茅tis and Inuit communities. We honour the memory of their stolen children and support calls to fully investigate, document and commemorate the violence of all residential school sites.
鈥淭he atrocities uncovered at Kamloops Indian Residential School are by no means exceptional. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has described the operations of Canada鈥檚 residential school system as cultural genocide. Official records show 51 child deaths at Kamloops Indian Residential School in the 88 years it operated. The disparity between this number and the number of children now found at Kamloops demonstrates how far we remain from understanding the horrible truth of Canada鈥檚 residential schools. In the Battlefords, the known graves of 72 children at Battleford Indian Industrial Residential School speak to the lethal consequences of this system, as well as our region鈥檚 place within it.
鈥淲e acknowledge that residential schools are just one component of our country鈥檚 system of forced assimilation that also includes the ban on Indigenous ceremonies and cultural practices, the pass system, the Sixties Scoop and other processes of historical and ongoing colonization. The consequences of this system on Indigenous peoples have been devastating and far-reaching. Despite making up less than eight per cent of Canada鈥檚 child population, more than half of children in foster care today are Indigenous. Suicide rates of First Nations, M茅tis and Inuit people are three times higher than among non-Indigenous people. An estimated 70 per cent of Canada鈥檚 Indigenous languages are in danger of disappearing, and with them, irretrievable parts of our culture and identity. Separation from families, malnutrition and widespread sexual and physical abuse contribute to widespread intergenerational trauma, the effects of which still resonate painfully today.
鈥淩esponsibility to heal these wounds must rest with those who authorized them. We call upon Canada to provide resources for all calls to action in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission鈥檚 final report. We call upon Canada and the Province of Saskatchewan to advance system change in policy and legislation, and to address systemic barriers in all of our institutions. We call upon Canada and our province to rebuild a relationship with Indigenous peoples that does not rest upon presumptions of their inferiority.鈥�
