Every Child Matters

6/30/2021

Today, something far more serious...

Today, the day before we celebrate Canada Day tomorrow, radio stations across the country are coming together to give a voice to our indigenous people, after the horrific discovery earlier this month, of the hundreds of unmarked graves at the sites of former Indian Residential schools in British Columbia and Saskatchewan....

Over a period of a century, one hundred and fifty thousand Indigenous children were taken from their families and sent to Residential schools. There they lost their culture, their language, their traditions, and teachings, and many were subjected to unspeakable abuse. Thousands lost their lives.

It's a shameful, horrific, dark part of our country's history, as the truth comes out. And as I'm typing this post there's a news flash at the top of my screen announcing another 182 graves have just been discovered at yet another former residential school in British Columbia.

How many more will they find??

Donna

6/30/2021 01:56:20 pm

Thank you for a heartfelt tribute to the thousands of children who lost their lives and the many thousands more who lost their childhoods when they were torn away from their families and forced into the Residential schools. It is our national shame.

Martha

6/30/2021 02:01:05 pm

It was very difficult to write. I just can't get my head around how badly the children were treated. I suspect we are only seeing the 'tip of the iceberg', as more graves are discovered - another 182 today. It's high time we all did the right thing by our indigenous people.

Jill Jackson

6/30/2021 01:58:44 pm

How do such atrocities manage to stay hidden for so long. These little ones are a beautiful tribute to those lost children.

Martha

6/30/2021 02:17:59 pm

I don't know. I think the history of the residential schools was never a secret, and there have always been stories, but the recent discoveries of all the children's unmarked graves using ground penetrating radar, has really shocked many people.

Dorothy

6/30/2021 03:22:11 pm

We carry the shame for this horrible treatment of children here in the US. There is a site of a Native American boarding school not so far from where I live. I have visited the gravesites there and toured the remaining buildings. It is so sad.

When the US put immigrant children in cages a few years back, I was reminded of the Native American children who suffered.

I think that serious prayer for healing is needed.

Carol

6/30/2021 06:27:22 pm

Your post today speaks for many of us who are not indigenous Canadians. The stories told are hard to hear & it is time for us to listen. Historically many children were treated very badly such as the British Home Children. My prayers are for a kinder gentler society where all people are valued.

Jay

7/1/2021 09:20:12 pm

A beautiful tribute, Martha. Well said. We in my country also bear the shame of horrific treatment of our indigenous people. And still their reservations lack for so much. It's a disgrace.

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