The former St. Joseph's Mission Residential School in Williams Lake (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS

Williams Lake First Nation in beginning stages of radar search for remains

Sep 10, 2021 | 10:59 AM

KAMLOOPS — Months after 215 unmarked graves were discovered on Tk’emlups te Secwepemc, many other First Nations across the country have started the process of finding remains.

The Williams Lake First Nation (WLFN) has just started searching at a former residential school in the area.

The ground-penetrating radar (GPR) work at the old St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School began Aug. 30 and the first phase will continue into early October.

However, even before work started, members of WFLN and other First Nations wanted to have a ceremony on the grounds.

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“To bless the grounds, make sure we’re letting the ancestors know that we’re doing it in a good way and the right way,” noted Kukpi7 Willie Sellars from the Williams Lake First Nation. “We brought multiple nations together for our first preliminary ceremony with cultural leaders from the multiple nations that are impacted, students that went to school over at the St. Joseph’s Mission. Nations like the Tsilhqot’in, the Secwepemc, the Southern Dakelh, the St’at’imc. Those are all catchment areas for St. Joseph’s Mission.”

Kukpi7 Sellars says the search will cover about 450 hectares of land and be conducted in multiple phases.

“We’re doing 150,000 square metres of investigation, GPR work in the first phase, but there are multiple phases, consecutive phases that we’re going to have to be looking at doing in consecutive years because of the footprint,” said Kukpi7 Sellars. “First phase, school footprint. Moving out from there.”

The Williams Lake First Nation is receiving federal and provincial funding to conduct the searches. It started planning the ground-penetrating radar search shortly after the discovery on Tk’emlups.

To date, more than 1,000 unmarked graves have been found across Canada.

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For more information:

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

Support Resources:

KUU-US Crisis Line: 1-800-588-8717

Tsow-Tun-Le Lum: 1-866-403-3123

Indian Residential School Survivors Society Toll-Free Line: 1-800-721-0066

24hr National Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419