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Articles on Indian Residential Schools

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Jessica Rachel Cook, ‘Under the blanket,’ 2023, repurposed church pews, athracite coal, durum wheat, beeswax, antique tools and mixed media. (Frank Piccolo/courtesy of Art Windsor-Essex)

Seeing histories of forced First Nations labour: the ‘Nii Ndahlohke / I Work’ art exhibition

Labour is the central theme for understanding history and legacies of Mount Elgin Industrial School, a former Indian Residential School, in a new exhibition at Art Windsor Essex.
A rock with the message ‘Every Child Matters’ painted on it sits at a memorial outside the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, in Kamloops, B.C., in July 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

We fact-checked residential school denialists and debunked their ‘mass grave hoax’ theory

Contrary to what some ‘denialists’ believe, research shows that Canadian media outlets did not help circulate a ‘mass grave hoax’ regarding unmarked graves at former Indian Residential Schools.
Ceremonial tipis sit in front of the former residential school, Blue Quills, now the home to Blue Quills university run by seven First Nations. (Terri Cardinal)

Residential school deaths are significantly higher than previously reported

The author led a search for unmarked graves at the site of Blue Quills, a former residential school. She found more areas of interest (potential graves) than the official record shows.
The Blue Quills Indian Residential School in St. Paul, Alta., Aug. 15, 1931. When the federal government announced plans to shutter the school in 1970, the community fought back, and Blue Quills became the first residence and school controlled by First Nations people in Canada. (Provincial Archives of Alberta)

Inside the search for the unmarked graves of children lost to Indian Residential Schools

To honour Truth and Reconciliation Day, we spoke with Terri Cardinal, who headed up one of the many community searches for the children who went missing while attending an Indian Residential School.
Amanda Snell (left) stands next to her car which has a photo of her deceased partner, Steven Dubois, taped to it. Richelle Dubois (right) stands next to a photo of her son, Haven Dubois. (Michelle Stewart)

Marching to Ottawa for neglected and murdered Indigenous men: One family’s fight for justice grows

This summer, one family is marching from Regina to Ottawa, hoping to raise awareness about the vulnerabilities and systemic inequalities faced by Indigenous boys, men and Two-Spirit People.
Former Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Chief Shane Gottfriedson, left, speaks as hiwus (Chief) Warren Paull, of the shíshálh Nation, listens during a news conference, in Vancouver, on Jan. 21, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Canada’s $2.8 billion settlement with Indigenous Day Scholars is a long time coming

This new agreement finally allows First Nations to decide for themselves how the funding will revitalize their language and culture independently of the government.
A rare photo from an Indian Residential School in Fort Resolution, N.W.T. These systems have been labeled a form of genocide by the Canadian House of Commons. (Department of Mines and Technical Surveys/Library and Archives Canada)

Residential school system recognized as genocide in Canada’s House of Commons: A harbinger of change

Canada’s recent resolution to label the Indian Residential School system as genocide (and not cultural genocide) is not a mere alteration of words, it is a significant and consequential change.
Duncan McCue, left, walks with Rocky James, a podcast guest on CBC’s ‘Kuper Island.’ (Evan Aagaard/CBC Podcasts)

How to decolonize journalism — Podcast

Canadian journalist institutions have failed to address their ongoing colonialism and that has meant that urgent Indigenous issues have been ignored or sensationalized.
Alex Bird (second from the left) and his siblings from the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation were among the first students to attend this public school, near Prince George, B.C., in the early 1910s. (Royal B.C. Museum, Image B-00342, British Columbia Archives)

Reckoning with the history of public schooling and settler colonialism

In B.C., residential school principals sat on public school boards, and some Indigenous children even attended public schools. Understanding such links matters for truth and reconciliation.
After the death of Queen Elizabeth, questions arise about whose life gets mourned and who does not. Here is the Queen with the Guards of Honour in Nigeria, Dec. 3, 2003, for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

About the Queen and the Crown’s crimes (or how to talk about the unmourned) — Podcast

In the middle of the tremendous outpouring of love and grief for the Queen and the monarchy she represented, not everyone wants to take a moment of silence. And there are a lot of reasons why.
A protestor holds a sign saying ‘Reparation for Reconciliation’ as Pope Francis arrives for a public event in Iqaluit, Nunavut on July 29, 2022, during his papal visit across Canada. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Reparations to Indigenous Peoples are critical after Pope’s apology for residential schools

The Pope’s apology could mark a new way forward if the Catholic Church makes genuine reparations for the evils it perpetrated.
Gilda Soosay, president of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Parish Council in Maskwacis, Canada, where Pope Francis visited the site of a state school for Indigenous children. Cole Burston/AFP via Getty Images

Christianity was a major part of Indigenous boarding schools – a historian whose family survived them explains

A historian of the residential schools explains how religion played a key role in assimilationist systems for Indigenous children in Canada and the United States.
Pope Francis arrives to a hero’s welcome at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton on July 26, 2022, to take part in a public mass. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

I survived the ’60s Scoop. Here’s why the Pope’s apology isn’t an apology at all

Apologizing for people versus the establishment that upheld not only the Indian Residential Schools system but protected – and continues to protect — the people who committed the crimes is horrifying.
Drawing of St. Peter’s cathedral, Rome, with the Vatican wall in the left distance, c. 1640. (The Trustees of the British Museum)

The Vatican and Western Canadian missions: A brief history

Residential schools and the papal bulls justifying the doctrine of discovery call out for concrete acts of atonement and reparation on the part of the church.
Pope Francis’s visit to Canada will offer him an opportunity to apologize for the harms of the Catholic-run Indian Residential Schools. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Why the Pope’s visit is important to all Canadians

Pope Francis’ visit concerns all Canadians. It’s about our relationship to history and the construction of a state that marginalized Indigenous people and tried to assimilate them.

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