A group of boarding school survivors and their supporters is calling on the federal government to reverse what they say are funding cuts to help locate the unmarked graves of students who attended these institutions. They are asking for more funds to be raised.
The request comes as Canada marks the fourth annual National Day of Truth and Reconciliation in 2021 to honor survivors of boarding schools and the children who never returned home. It was held on the same day.
The Office of Survivors, which is analyzing decades-old records and searching the site of the former Mohawk Research Institute near Brantford, Ont., is following a series of measures announced by Ottawa earlier this year that it says will reduce the total cost of damages. Be at the forefront of change. A pool of funding available to Indigenous communities to document brutality and death in residential schools.
Budget has been reduced in recent budgets: Secretariat
The issue came to the forefront of the national agenda in 2021 after the Tukemloops Te Secwepemuku First Nation conducted a preliminary radar survey of the site of the former Kamloops First Nation Residential School, which revealed that more than 200 people were living at the site. This comes after it was announced that a child may have been buried there. BC
In response to these alarming claims, the federal government has conducted its own investigation and earmarked $209.8 million in the 2022 budget to support Indigenous communities who wish to “document, identify and memorialize their burial sites.” The dollar amount was recorded. The money has already funded 146 projects, including research and ground surveys.
But the most recent federal budget for continuing research that the Survivors’ Office says is critical to understanding what happened in facilities where abuse is rampant and deaths occur, is $9,100 over two years. He said the budget has been reduced by $1,000. .
Laura Arndt, executive leader of the Office of Survivors, said the change in the allocation of funding for the Residential School Missing Children Community Support Fund would mean communities would be “set against each other”. “This is a shell game being played with words,” Arndt said in response to the Royal and Indigenous Relations Minister’s comments about the funding.
The funding change means “communities will be competing against each other to access a limited pool of funding,” Laura Arndt, director of the bureau, told reporters on Parliament Hill. Ta.
Arndt said if Ottawa doesn’t get additional funding soon, communities will be forced to abandon jobs.
“We are trying to unravel 150 years of history, and the limited funding provided over three years will not allow us to do that,” she said.
“Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of work is required, but this is just the beginning of trying to uncover the truth about what happened at all these schools.”
She pointed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s previous commitments to “support our communities” and “work every step of the way to honor the children who did not return,” and said the least Trudeau could do is The key is to provide stable funding for such searches, he said.
“We say to the Prime Minister: We have had enough. Promises are only meaningful if you keep them. So let’s keep our promises. Do it for our communities, do it for our country. That way, they can see what real reconciliation looks like.”
Federal Government is fully committed: Minister
Gary Anandasangaree, Royal and Indigenous Relations Minister, said the government remained committed to funding this research work, and eligible communities could receive up to $3 million each from the department.
“We will continue to work with all communities throughout this year’s process,” he said in an interview with CBC News.
He also said more funding could be available: “I am working with my ministerial colleagues to ensure that we have the funding to meet public demand.”
Arndt did not say how much money she and similar organizations would need. She just said she wants “long-term, sustainable resources to ensure we get the job done.”
“During National Reconciliation Month, we should not be held in a barrel begging for funding for the promises made by this Prime Minister. Do I have to beg for funds?”
Arndt added that if Ottawa doesn’t get more funding, it risks fueling a “denier movement” in boarding schools, denying or downplaying what happens at these schools, or denying the numbers. He referred to some people who have doubts about the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The children are said to have died while attending.
The TRC conducted a thorough, multi-year investigation into the system run by the federal government and some churches in various locations, finding that as many as 6,000 children may have died, most of them He said the deaths were due to malnutrition and illness. of National Truth and Reconciliation Center Based on death records, it is estimated that approximately 4,100 children died in boarding schools across the country.
“People need to understand the price we paid in our childhood.”
Roberta Hill, a former student at Mohawk Institute and member of the Survivors’ Office, said the school was “very horrible, very toxic, toxic and abusive” and that people like her deserved the genocide caused. By schools like this who have said they have a right to know the true extent of.
Research and research “will take time, and cutting funding now is completely foolish and will only lead to anger and great frustration.”
“Maybe it’s a waiting game for them,” she said. “They’re waiting for us poor old boarding school survivors to die. Well, I’m not going anywhere. Not yet.”
“I’m going to live as long as I can because I want answers and I want the truth. People need to understand the price we paid as children.”
Scott Hamilton is a professor of archeology at Lakehead University who is working with the survivors’ office and community counseling on how to search the ground for potential graves.
Mr Hamilton said such non-invasive investigations are “very complex, very expensive” and “technically demanding”.
“This cannot be done in a hurry or you will create more problems than you solve,” he said.
With less money to go around, he told the community to “stop all ground research, stop all geophysics” and use other resources, such as gathering information from survivors and digging through document archives. It is recommended that the funds be used for research.
“Essentially, I told them to fire me.
“You don’t need me anymore. Please concentrate on your main activities.”
Support is available to anyone affected by their own experiences in residential schools or intergenerational trauma.
A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line was established to provide support to survivors and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour National Crisis Line at 1-866-925-4419.
