File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Adam Donnelly

Residential Schools

Tk’emlups chief prepares to carry emotion of gravesite revelation into meeting with Pope Francis

Feb 4, 2022 | 4:19 PM

KAMLOOPS — Indigenous leaders from across Canada are preparing to meet with the Pope at the end of March, to address the confirmation of the thousands of possible gravesites confirmed at former residential school sites across Canada.

Kukpi7 Rosanne Casimir from Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc will represent the BC Assembly of First Nations in a delegation of 13 Indigenous leaders that will visit the Vatican at the end of March. While the group will get an hour to meet with Pope Francis, Casimir will have an opportunity for a one-on-one meeting with the head of the Catholic Church during the visit.

“We’re going to have that opportunity to share our truths and our history and the impacts that [the residential school system] has had on us,” Casimir tells CFJC Today. “Our hope is that the Pope listens and hears with (an) open mind and open heart to the messages that we’ll be bringing over there.”

Planning for the trip to meet with the Holy See and Pope Francis has been underway since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Actions were first published. Casimir says it’s a momentous occasion for all of the delegates, as well as for the people they represent.

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“I gave it consideration and a lot of thought. We know that there’s so much pain and trauma that has got to be carried forward,” Casimir says. “I know for myself, it’s about honouring that commitment. It’s about taking those messages, what I heard, to the Vatican.”

On May 27, 2021, Casimir revealed the findings of a radar search of the former residential school site on the Tk’emlups Reserve discovered more than 200 possible gravesites. That knowledge has carried with it a significant weight of emotion, which she plans to carry with her to the Vatican.

“To think, going from May 27, to have that opportunity to be there, in the Vatican, itself. It’s going to be one that is truly a change; and truly one where I’m going to feel a lot of deep emotion.”