Sunday, September 29

Hundreds of graves found in another boarding school for indigenous children in Canada


An indigenous group in Canada reported having found hundreds of unidentified graves in another Saskatchewan school. They haven’t specified how many yet, but they say it’s the biggest find to date.

Hallan cientos de tumbas en otro internado para niños indígenas en Canadá
In recent weeks, people left children’s shoes at memorials to honor those who they died in indigenous schools in Canada.

Photo: REUTERS / copyright

BBC News Mundo

An indigenous group in Canada claims to have found hundreds of unnamed graves at the site of an old residential school in the province of Saskatchewan.

The group “Cowessess First Nation” said Wednesday that the discovery is the “most significant to date in Canada,” although it did not specify the exact number of graves found.

occurs weeks after the remains of 215 children in a similar school in British Columbia.

These BBC News Mundo compulsory boarding schools

were administered by the government and religious authorities during the 19th and 20th centuries with the aim of assimilating indigenous youth to Canadian culture.

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Last month Or, the cowessess began using ground-penetrating radar to locate unmarked graves in the Marieval Indian Residential School cemetery in Saskatchewan.

Homenaje en honor a los niños indígenas fallecidos en Canadá at this difficult time.

The group, which described the discovery as “horrible and shocking”, announced that it will provide more details about the case this Thursday at a press conference.

Perry Bellegarde, National Head of the Assembly of First Nations, described the finding of the tombs as “Tragic but not surprising.”

“I urge all Canadians to support First Nations at this extremely difficult and emotional time,” he wrote on Twitter.

Abuse and mistreatment

Between 1863 Y 1998, more of 150. 000 indigenous children were separated from their families and sent to these schools.

Children were often not allowed to speak their language or practice their culture, and many were mistreated and abused.

A commission created in 2008 to document the impacts of this system found that a large number of indigenous children never returned to their communities of origin.

In 2008, the Canadian government formally apologized for this system.

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