Another 66 graves of indigenous children have been found at a boarding school in western Canada. This was revealed by ground radar surveys at St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School near the town of Williams Lake in the province of British Columbia, researchers said Wednesday (local time) at a news conference, as reported by the newspaper “Toronto Star”.
The school, largely run by the Catholic Church, taught indigenous children from 1891 to 1981, according to the report. More evidence of the “horror and suffering” of Native children is coming to light, Williams Lake First Nation’s Willie Sellars said at the news conference. According to the newspaper, 93 suspected graves were found at the site last year using ground radar.
150,000 Indigenous children ripped from families for decades
Such repeated grave finds have sparked numerous protests in Canada in recent years, as well as sparking horror and outrage far beyond the country’s borders. For decades, starting in the 1880s, an estimated 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their families and placed in church-run boarding schools. The program, initiated by the state and supported by the Church, was designed to help the children adjust to Western Christian society. In schools, many children experienced violence, sexual abuse, hunger and disease. Hundreds never came home. The last church-run boarding schools closed in 1996.
In July 2022, Pope Francis traveled to Canada and asked indigenous people for forgiveness for their suffering in Catholic boarding schools. The policy of assimilation and disenfranchisement was “devastating” and “catastrophic” for the people of these areas, the Argentine said in a speech at the time.
Source: Krone
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