Canada targets CAN$321M to help identify Indigenous graves

TRENTON, Canada

Canada announced Tuesday it earmarked CAN$320 million ($256 million) to help Indigenous tribes uncover and deal with the trauma of unearthing often-unmarked graves at Indian Residential Schools.

Since May, more than 1,300 graves -- many of children -- have been found using ground-penetrating radar at four former schools but the estimated number is at least 3,200, according to a commission report.

The 139 schools, the first of which was opened in the 1820s, were an attempt to wipe out Indigenous cultures in the children and replace them with white culture. About 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their parents and forced to attend the schools which were often run by Christian religious orders - the Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, and United churches. The last school closed in 1996.

They often suffered physical, mental, and psychological abuse and contracted fatal diseases such as tuberculosis, and were buried at the schools. Grave markers, if any, have long since disappeared.

The funds will go to unearthing more graves and help survivors and families cope with the trauma resulting from the findings.

It will also be used to pay an as-yet-unidentified interlocutor (examiner) "who will work with Indigenous peoples to ... make recommendations relating to federal laws, regulations, policies and practises surrounding unmarked and undocumented graves and burial sites at residential schools," said Justice Minister David Lametti at a news conference.

National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations RoseAnne Archibald told the Aboriginal Peoples Television News that she can no longer call them schools.

“I once again state, Canadian government policies, along with the church committed crimes against humanity, crimes against our children," Archibald said after the government funding announcement.

"Make no mistake, we are seeing evidence of genocide. The announcement today is long overdue. It’s a long-overdue step in acknowledging the devastating harm that these institutions have, and continue to have. Now is the time for accountability, action, and healing.”