Banner of names of children lost at residential school. NDTR on Parliament Hill on September 30, 2024. Photo: Mark Blackburn/APTN.
The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, or NCTR, says it is adding hundreds of additional names to the registrar of children missing from residential schools.
“There are more than 4,000 students on the registry and through the NCTR research team we have been able to find 400 additional names this year,” executive director Stephanie Scott told a gathering on Parliament Hill for the annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
The NCTR was established by the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement and is mandated to collect information regarding residential schools.
Scott said the centre is continuously working with communities to uncover more names. She said after the ceremony that it’s a constant struggle to find money for the research.
“It’s really important to find all the young children, who did not return home,” she said. “We’ve got another two years to continue the work and then every other year we’re actually at the table again speaking with the government lobbying for funding trying to get the resources in order to do the work.
“It’s hard, it’s emotional and we will continue updating the register every year until we no longer do it.”
More than 150,000 children were forced to attend residential schools, and many survivors detailed the horrific abuse they suffered at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
An estimated 6,000 children died while attending the schools, although experts say the actual number could be much higher.
Most in attendance on Parliament Hill were wearing the orange shirts that have come to be a symbol of reconciliation, inspired by the story of residential school survivor Phyllis Jack Webstad, who has recounted having a brand new orange shirt taken from her on her first day at a residential school and never having it returned.
“The residential school system was intended to destroy us, and they did not succeed,” said Scott. “Our children suffered in those institutions, and to this day, their spirits call out to all of us to be remembered and honoured.”
After Scott addressed the crowd, a red banner carrying the names of children who died in residential schools made its way toward the stage. People stood up as it passed in a show of respect.
Unmarked graves funding
Ahead of the ceremony on Parliament Hill, residential school survivors accused the federal government of cutting back on money for records and ground searches for unmarked graves of the children who attended residential schools across the country.
In 2021, after numerous First Nations reported locating what appeared to be human remains on the sites of former residential schools, Ottawa stepped in with more than $116 million to search for unmarked graves and to memorialize the children who died. As of March 2024, the government had actually provided $216 million through 146 different funding agreements.
That ended up averaging about $71 million a year.
In the most recent budget, the government allocated $91 million over the next two years to continue to work to look for graves, or $45.5 million a year according to The Survivors’ Secretariat.
Laura Arndt, the lead for the Survivors’ Secretariat, a survivor-led organization seeking to document and uncover the truth of what happened at the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ont., criticized what she says cannot be characterized as anything but a funding cut.
“We’ve had enough,” she said at a news conference on the Hill Monday morning. “Promises only matter if you keep them. So keep your promise, do it for the communities, do it for this country so that they may know what real reconciliation looks like. And most importantly do it for the survivors who lived through this nightmare. And who for 60, 70, and sometimes 80 years have fought for the truth to be told about those who didn’t come home.
“We’re trying to uncover a history that’s 150 years old, and the limited funding we’ve been provided in three years is not doable.”
The Survivors’ Secretariat has indicated the change will have a dramatic impact on communities who have started their searches and those hoping to secure funding of their own. Arendt says communities and organizations were informed via a teleconference with federal government officials of the cuts in July, and had their microphones muted which reduced ability to push back on the cut.
Ceremonies across the country
It was one of numerous ceremonies across Canada Monday to mark a day that officially began in 2021, fulfilling one of the calls to action in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report.
In Charlottetown, Premier Dennis King invited the chiefs of the Mi’kmaq First Nations and the public to the Provincial Administration Building for a short reflection followed by lowering the flags to honour the lives of Indigenous Peoples affected by the residential school system.
The province also planned to shine orange lights on the building after sunset.
In Fredericton, Amanda Myran Dakota of Wolastoqey First Nation sat with her elders, holding her drum which she would later play at the ceremony there.
She said since Truth and Reconciliation Day was created in 2021, “there have been some baby steps, but there is a lot of work that has to happen.”
Dakota pointed to the number of Indigenous children in foster care as indicative of being a “modern-day residential school.”
A loud, boisterous sea of orange marched through Montreal to mark the day after a ceremony at the foot of Mount Royal.first gathering at the foot of Mount Royal to listen to number of speakers including Indigenous musician Jeremy Dutcher and Kevin Deer, an elder from Kahnawake Mohawk Territory near Montreal who performed a ceremony to begin the event.
Orange shirts are being worn across the country for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, including thousands of people in downtown Winnipeg taking part in a healing walk.
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Na’kuset, executive director of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal and an organizer of the event, said she hoped to see more young people get involved in the movement.
She noted the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report has been around for nearly a decade, but only 11 of the 94 calls to action have been implemented.
“So who’s going to do it if the adults now, the current government, isn’t going to implement them? We’re hoping that next generation is going to do it,” she said. “It’s really hard to get the government to move, and I’m really not patient so, I’m hoping to have people inspired today by these incredible speakers that are going to share knowledge they would not get anywhere else.”
Noëlla Mckenzie, an Innu elder and residential school survivor, told those gathered at the foot of Mount Royal that she came for the same reason others did.
“We are stronger together,” Mckenzie said.
“I’m proud today because I spent 10 years in a residential school … I told myself we must always give hope to our kids of the future, so that they know what we’ve experienced.”
In Toronto, a crowd gathered at Nathan Phillips Square outside city hall, most wearing orange shirts and traditional Indigenous clothing, as musicians beat drums, a dancer performed and speakers delivered speeches on the stage.
“I am here because this an important day for all Canadians,” said Sarita Censoni who visited the square with her friend.
“It is a time for us to heal, to help our Indigenous communities, to move forward, to understand there is no truth without reconciliation.”
Riscylla Shaw, a grandchild of a residential school survivor, said the residential school system a painful part of not only history but also present-day Canada.
“It’s a very painful part of our present,” she said. “It is a very painful part of the current way of being that so many indigenous communities don’t have fresh water, don’t have access to health resources, education resources, fresh food.”
Shaw said it was heartwarming for her see so many people marking the day.
“It also is really meaningful to see so many people here in orange shirts, to see the support,” she said.
In British Columbia, where a provincial election campaign is underway, the main party leaders turned their attention to Truth and Reconciliation Day but with a clear political lens.
B.C. Conservative Party Leader John Rustad said if his party were elected the province would partner with First Nations to find prosperity through resource projects.
NDP Leader David Eby attended an Orange Shirt Day ceremony at the University of B.C., while Green Leader Sonia Furstenau held a news conference to warn that some of the of the party leaders want to “undo” the progress the province has made on Indigenous rights.
Furstenau was referring to Rustad’s previous pledge to repeal legislation on B.C.’s adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau travelled to Inuvik, N.W.T. to take part in events there. He was represented in Ottawa by many in his cabinet including Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree.
“It’s a day for enormous reflection,” said Anandasangaree, his words straining to be heard over the heartbeat of the drum playing behind him.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre didn’t attend the event on Parliament Hill, electing to participate in a separate event with Indigenous leaders along with the party’s critic for Crown-Indigenous relations and Indigenous services MP Jamie Schmale.
In a statement, Poilievre recalled the “dark history of excessive government overreach” that brought long-lasting suffering to First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities.
“Indigenous peoples must have the freedom to determine their futures, preserve their languages, develop their resources, use their talents and celebrate their cultures,” he said. “Through a new approach and through the unmatched resilience of Indigenous people, Canada can achieve reconciliation and a brighter future for all.”
