Statement on Kamloops Indian Residential School
Content Warning: Please take the necessary steps to protect your heart and mind.
On behalf of HWDSB, we express our deepest sympathies as we grieve the heart-breaking news that the remains of 215 children have been discovered at a Kamloops Indian Residential School. This is triggering information for many and we will include supports below.
We will lower all HWDSB flags until sunset on Wednesday, June 2.
We are profoundly shaken by this discovery. Our thoughts are with Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation, and Indigenous communities across Canada. Sadly, this discovery confirms what many Indigenous families already knew.
This is more evidence of the cruelty and genocide perpetrated at Canadian residential schools. It also reveals the struggles Indigenous communities face when they try to share their lived experience with disbelieving governments and institutions.
As we know – or need to know – Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their homes, families and communities to attend state and church-led schools that stripped them of their culture, language and identity. This created irreversible harm from which many families still suffer.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, established to find the truth in our country’s dark and painful history of residential schools, has called for transparency regarding burial information for children who died at residential schools, including informing their families.
At HWDSB, we must continue our work on Indigenous Education so that all Indigenous students feel like they belong, and that their identities are valued, recognized and affirmed in our schools.
Thank you to the staff leading this work. It includes supporting Indigenous Cultural Safety, which is the development, implementation, maintenance and ongoing evaluation of education models that reflect the needs of the Indigenous community of Hamilton.
Together, we can – and will – support Indigenous students, staff and families, always conscious of the legacy of trauma caused by residential schools.
We will continue to work with Indigenous communities to build an educational environment that respects and supports every student.
Sincerely,
Dawn Danko, Chair of the Board
Manny Figueiredo, Director of Education
Resources
- National Indian Residential School Crisis Line is available 24 hours a day at 1-866-925-4419.
- National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation
- The Missing Children Project
- Tips for adults supporting children and youth after distressing events
- Mental health and well-being supports: www.hwdsb.on.ca/wehelp
Updated on Monday, May 31, 2021.