Canada’s self-definition as a peaceful champion of human rights on the world stage has been severely shaken since the unmarked graves of 215 indigenous children were discovered on the grounds of a former residential school in British Columbia in May. Since then, hundreds more graves have been found at other schools as First Nations communities continue to search using ground-penetrating radar technology.
These grim discoveries are no surprise to many. From the 19th century until the 1990s, over 150,000 indigenous children were forced by the state to attend assimilation schools in Canada. According to Canada’s founding father, John A Macdonald, the idea of these institutions was ‘to take the Indian out of the child’. More than 15,000 children are estimated to have died while in the system.
