chief of a northern ontario first Nation The province’s first “praiseworthy burial” was found, which says the community is in shock and its members are working hard to ensure mental health support is available to survivors and their loved ones.
Chris Skade, chief of the Wojushak Onigum Nation, says 171 anomalies and “possible burials” have been uncovered at the site of the former St. Mary’s Indian Residential School. kenora Many of the survivors who attended the Catholic-run institution earlier this week are being rehabilitated.
The chief says he sees the hard feelings of community members and feels overwhelmed by the inclusion of his brothers and sisters and forefathers in the organization.
Since May the studies were being conducted by the First Nation’s technical, archeological and ground-penetrating radar team, who were informed by the testimony of survivors.
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The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has stated that between 1897 and 1972 more than 6,000 Indigenous children were said to have had pre-institution grounds, most of the findings were unmarked, except for five with serious markers.
The chief says that along with mental health support, the nation’s next steps include securing funding from the province to continue forensic identification of the bones and establishing a way to memorialize the laudable burial.
“We need treatment centers, things like that, because a lot of it stems from generational trauma,” he said.
“That hurt is still alive and well in each and every one of us as Anishinaabe people because you were either a survivor, a grandchild of a survivor, a child of a survivor, or you are all three.”
The chief said he has heard from provincial ministers who have told First Nations they will support it “in any way they possibly can.”
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has recorded the deaths of at least 36 children at the site, but the chief says survivors’ testimony suggests the death toll is much higher.
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