Image Credit: Adam Donnelly / CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

COMMUNITY IN MOURNING

‘It’s almost like a plane crash’: Secwepemc people grieve after remains found near former residential school

May 28, 2021 | 5:22 PM

TK’EMLUPS — Community members, survivors and chiefs from around Secwepemculew gathered today to honour the hundreds of lives lost — now found in the grounds surrounding the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.

Rick Aleck attended residential school as a child, and joined several survivors at drum circle ceremony from the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Arbour today (May 28).

“Like most of my brothers, we just looked around and (saw) there’s very few of us that will come to these events because of the hurt,” he explains.

This week, Tk’emlups Kukpi7 / Chief Rosanne Casimir notified surrounding communities of the discovery — the remains of 215 children believed to have been students of the institution.

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Bonaparte Kukpi7 Frank Antoine is one of the chiefs who has been in contact with Tk’emlups about the initial findings.

“As soon as we heard about it, we all bowed our heads and thought about what devastation. It’s almost like a plane crash you’re dealing with.”

In the coming weeks, more surveying work will be undertaken and Indigenous leaders will work with Kamloops RCMP and the BC Coroners Service to gather more information about the site. Antoine figures the 215 sites won’t be the last.

“This is just the start. I think that if they go to the other former residential schools where they’re at, they’re going to find them,” he notes. “…and the first word that came to me automatically when I heard that yesterday was genocide.”

The preliminary findings stirred up feelings of trauma for those who knew the stories of children who never returned home, and those with painful memories of attending the very school.

(The National Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide 24/7 support to residential school survivors and others who are affected. Call 1 (866) 925-4419.)

Shakan Indian Band Kukpi7 Arnie Lampreau went to the Kamloops institution and says as a survivor he felt drawn to return for Friday’s ceremony.

“Today I left my chief’s hat at home and tomorrow I’ll deal with this, and I believe that when our chiefs come together we’re going to make a good decision. And hopefully it comes quick and we find some resolution to what has happened here.”

As the people impacted by the findings on the land wait for more information, the various communities have come together to share in their grief, and determine what kind of healing process will need to take place.

Residential School survivor Charlotte Manuel spoke with CFJC crews while leaving the ceremony, and pointed to the importance of ceremonies and other cultural practices for healing.

“We were very lonesome for each other and it took these young people that were buried here to bring us together so that we can send them on. Now they’ve brought us together in love — unconditional love — and I hope that we can move forward.”