We recommend you read this report, Sites of Truth, Sites of Conscience, published in 2024, from the Office of the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools. Here we have provided some direct quotes from the report:
"Sites of Truth, Sites of Conscience is an historical report, based primarily on e
vidence gathered from the government and churches’ own archival records, that directly links the actions and omissions of the federal government and the churches that operated Indian Residential Schools with the crisis of the missing and disappeared children and unmarked burials. It documents the buildings, cemeteries, and burial grounds at several former Indian Residential Schools. Once places of silence and suffering, they are now sites of truth" (report's homepage).
"The chapters in this Report, based primarily on evidence gathered from the government’s
and churches’ own archival records, reveal how systemic settler colonial patterns of genocide operate. These patterns underpin the institutional systems and structures—the laws, policies, and bureaucratic practices—of the Indian Residential School System, with devastating impacts on the lives, deaths, and burials of Indigenous children who were forcibly transferred to these and other institutions by various officials. These institutional systems and structures foster a culture of individual and collective impunity that shields perpetrators from full accountability for their actions" (Sites of Truth, Sites of Conscience, p. 8).
"Exposing these records, as painful as it is to read them, is a powerful antidote to denialism and will help Canadians to understand why truth, accountability, justice, and reparations are essential to reconciliation. This historical Report will serve as a catalyst for further research to support this Sacred work moving forward" (p. 9).
"In Canada, Indian Residential Schools are institutional sites of truth that are also sites of
conscience. Together with Survivors’ accounts and archival records, the maps, drawings,
and photographs of former Indian Residential School sites in this chapter are evidence of genocide and mass human rights violations" (p. 24).
Read full report here: Sites of Truth Sites of Conscience
Reference
| The final reports of Canada’s inquiry into the Indian Residential School system is one of the most important sets of public documents in contemporary Canada. The Executive Summary includes the history, survivor testimonies, and 94 calls to action resulting from the work of the commission. | |
| For more information the activities about and findings from Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, see all the Commission's reports, available here. | Also, see The Survivors Speak report, available here. |
|
|
 |
Ask us