Mandryk: Cowessess residential school gravesite a reckoning for us all
A day of reckoning has arrived.
“We had concentration camps here,”
“They were called residential school.”
© Provided by Leader Post Flags mark the site of 751 unmarked graves at the site of the former Marieval Residential School on what is now Cowessess First Nation land. Photo provided by the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations on June 24, 2021.
The potential of 751 unmarked graves at the site of the former Marieval Indian Residential School on Cowessess First Nation demands we see this historical atrocity for what it always was.
We cannot look away.
This is the truth part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The TRC report could only verify a “partial number” of 566 children dying at all Saskatchewan residential schools and 3,200 total historic deaths throughout Canada’s shameful Indian residential school history. Even before the Cowessess discovery, last month’s finding of 215 graves at the site of the former Kamloops residential school put that number in doubt.
But the issue isn’t the statistics. It is so much bigger than that.
What’s far more important is the understanding that we probably will never have a final number because governments, churches and society didn’t think Indigenous children worth counting … or, as it turns out, worthy of a proper burial.
“Today, they are unmarked graves,” Cowessess Chief Cadmus Delorme said Thursday. “The Catholic Church removed these headstones.”
By way of injecting as much accuracy and fairness into this tragedy as he possibly could, Delorme repeatedly stressed Thursday this was not a “mass gravesite.” He carefully explained the science of the ground-penetrating radar that covered 41,000 square meters and comes with a 10-per-cent margin of error. For that reason, the so-far identified graves may not be the full 751 but certainly fall higher than 600.
Delorme further acknowledged some of these graves may contain the remains of community adults buried at this site before the school’s existence or after it was built.
But Delorme’s grace in not wanting to be perceived as exaggerating should not detract from the reckoning this news must bring about.
Video: Discovery of unmarked graves at Saskatchewan residential school site announced (Leader Post)
This is not about a specific number. This is about a specific truth — for decades, children buried here were stripped of their families, culture and religion.
Injustices against Indigenous children were not just something that happened when the Marieval Indian Residential School opened in 1899. It happened through its history. This is as much of a reality as are the children that now lie in unmarked graves in Cowessess because they were not deemed important enough to send their bodies home to their families.
Delorme on Thursday graciously acknowledged “there are many who agree to disagree” but that “there is no doubt the Roman Catholic Church has a profound impact” on his community; a community that will continue to struggle as it tries to heal.
“The more we put names to them, the more it is going to hurt,” Delorme said.
Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) Chief Bobby Cameron chose words far more direct. During Thursday’s online press conference that attracted journalists from all around the world, Cameron spared no one’s feelings by calling this a genocide on Canadian soil.
“We had concentration camps here,” Cameron said. “They were called residential school.”
Cameron’s demands were certainly in no way unreasonable, calling for “something more than an apology” including further identifying gravesites and access to church records.
There should be no denying the hurt being felt by all First Nations people. We all need to see this day as the reckoning it very much is.
Sadly, some still consumed by the darkness of their own anger, hate and racism would prefer to see this story remain in the dark. Others will, unhelpfully, attempt to blame this century-long catastrophe on whichever government or party they most dislike today.
But before anyone engages in either, maybe we should heed the thoughts Delorme used to end Thursday’s press conference.
He spoke of his love for his First Nations community and his preference to work toward a solid economic future for his children. His message to white settler neighbours was a simple request they help in the healing.
“The truth is there,” Delorme said. “Everybody has to reset the ignorance or the accidental racism.”
This is a day of reckoning for us all.
Murray Mandryk is political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
The potential of 751 unmarked graves at the site of the former Marieval Indian Residential School on Cowessess First Nation demands we see this historical atrocity for what it always was.
We cannot look away.
This is the truth part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The TRC report could only verify a “partial number” of 566 children dying at all Saskatchewan residential schools and 3,200 total historic deaths throughout Canada’s shameful Indian residential school history. Even before the Cowessess discovery, last month’s finding of 215 graves at the site of the former Kamloops residential school put that number in doubt.
But the issue isn’t the statistics. It is so much bigger than that.
What’s far more important is the understanding that we probably will never have a final number because governments, churches and society didn’t think Indigenous children worth counting … or, as it turns out, worthy of a proper burial.
“Today, they are unmarked graves,” Cowessess Chief Cadmus Delorme said Thursday. “The Catholic Church removed these headstones.”
By way of injecting as much accuracy and fairness into this tragedy as he possibly could, Delorme repeatedly stressed Thursday this was not a “mass gravesite.” He carefully explained the science of the ground-penetrating radar that covered 41,000 square meters and comes with a 10-per-cent margin of error. For that reason, the so-far identified graves may not be the full 751 but certainly fall higher than 600.
Delorme further acknowledged some of these graves may contain the remains of community adults buried at this site before the school’s existence or after it was built.
But Delorme’s grace in not wanting to be perceived as exaggerating should not detract from the reckoning this news must bring about.
Video: Discovery of unmarked graves at Saskatchewan residential school site announced (Leader Post)
This is not about a specific number. This is about a specific truth — for decades, children buried here were stripped of their families, culture and religion.
Injustices against Indigenous children were not just something that happened when the Marieval Indian Residential School opened in 1899. It happened through its history. This is as much of a reality as are the children that now lie in unmarked graves in Cowessess because they were not deemed important enough to send their bodies home to their families.
Delorme on Thursday graciously acknowledged “there are many who agree to disagree” but that “there is no doubt the Roman Catholic Church has a profound impact” on his community; a community that will continue to struggle as it tries to heal.
“The more we put names to them, the more it is going to hurt,” Delorme said.
Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) Chief Bobby Cameron chose words far more direct. During Thursday’s online press conference that attracted journalists from all around the world, Cameron spared no one’s feelings by calling this a genocide on Canadian soil.
“We had concentration camps here,” Cameron said. “They were called residential school.”
Cameron’s demands were certainly in no way unreasonable, calling for “something more than an apology” including further identifying gravesites and access to church records.
There should be no denying the hurt being felt by all First Nations people. We all need to see this day as the reckoning it very much is.
Sadly, some still consumed by the darkness of their own anger, hate and racism would prefer to see this story remain in the dark. Others will, unhelpfully, attempt to blame this century-long catastrophe on whichever government or party they most dislike today.
But before anyone engages in either, maybe we should heed the thoughts Delorme used to end Thursday’s press conference.
He spoke of his love for his First Nations community and his preference to work toward a solid economic future for his children. His message to white settler neighbours was a simple request they help in the healing.
“The truth is there,” Delorme said. “Everybody has to reset the ignorance or the accidental racism.”
This is a day of reckoning for us all.
Murray Mandryk is political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
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