Children’s Graves in Canada: A Discharge of Rage Against Colonial History

According to the broadcaster, rallies took place in several cities, with a large one in Montreal, Quebec province. Sentences like “we were children” were written on the doors of the church during the protest.

Banners read, for example: “Which country is celebrating its national holiday, indigenous people are looking for their children who have been killed by Canada”. According to media reports on Friday, several cities, indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians took part in the rallies.

“Re-education” of indigenous children

According to the CBC and other Canadian media, the number of suspected graves of children around former, mostly church-run boarding schools (“residential schools”) now exceeds 1,000. In boarding schools, indigenous children must “unlearn” the language and tradition and “learn” the culture of the colonial authority.

The first graves were announced in May, most recently around 180 unmarked graves near St. Eugene Mission School, near Cranbrook, British Columbia.

abuse and disease

It is estimated that between 1830 and 1998 approximately 150,000 Indigenous children were placed – often forcibly – in such re-education homes. Many of these 139 houses were run by the Catholic Church.

There the children should be introduced to the “Christian Civilization” on behalf of the state. Often they were not allowed to speak their mother tongue. Many of them were abused or abused. Many people died of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis.

PM demands apology from Vatican

In a face-to-face meeting, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently asked Pope Francis to apologize to indigenous peoples in Canada. The Bishops’ Conference of Canada announced that a group of Indigenous Canadian representatives would meet Pope Francis at the Vatican from December 17 to 20. It is about promoting “dialogue and healing”, it said.

The first graves found, more than 200, were in May, and just days before hundreds more unmarked graves were discovered in the province of Saskatchewan, also on the site of a former boarding school that is currently being investigated. The underlying assumption was therefore: the fire could be an act of vengeance against the Church.

more and more graves are found

The Cowesses people announced the new discovery just a few days ago. The facility in question, south of the city of Regina in central Canada, was in operation from 1899 to 1997. The Cowes took it over from the Catholic Church in the 1980s.

Over the past few weeks, targeted searches of human remains and unmarked graves were carried out on the school grounds and adjacent cemetery. It is not yet clear whether it is children or adults. On Wednesday, more than 180 unmarked graves were found near the aforementioned St. Eugene Mission School in British Columbia.