“I lost a brother and a sister in that school in Port Alberni”

Sitting in the Parksville Museum courtyard in front of a small crowd, he recalled memories of waking to the sound of a beating drum and his elders singing outside the longhouse. With a soft, slow voice, he remembered being connected to his culture and to his family.

“Oh, that was the most joyous time of my life, when they were building that longhouse. That stayed with me when I went to residential school. That saved me — my culture saved me.”

Bob described his time in residential school as hell and said he is surprised he is still here.

“I lost a brothers in and a sister in that school in Port Alberni. One was pushed out of a window — my dear sister, she was pushed down a stairway. It’s hard to talk about because, you know, anyone with family would understand the feeling that someone would have over a loss like that.”

View the interactive map from CBC to find out.

The Honourable Murray Sinclair, Video Statement, June 01 2021

Watch the full video statement above. WARNING: The video contains details some people may find distressing.

Interested in supporting Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc?

The community has released this document:

Considering the Legal and Human Rights Framework for Addressing Mass Graves Connected to Indian Residential Schools

– a paper released by the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre, UBC, June 2021.

This paper proposes some of the legal and policy issues that governments must address, in consultation and cooperation with Indigenous peoples, if a proper and serious framework for addressing unmarked burials and mass graves in Canada is to be established.