Jean and I were recently in Iqaluit to provide support at a national gathering on children who did not return home from residential school, as well as potential unmarked graves and burial sites.
Sounds pretty heavy, right? Parts of it were, but they also provided a lot of information to participants on how to go about starting a program to identify missing children and unmarked graves. Right on.
How did this all happen? Well, you will recall that a few years ago, a First Nation in Kamloops, B.C., announced that they had used ground-penetrating radar to identify a possible 215 unmarked graves. Whew.
Since the Kamloops announcement, First Nations across Canada have located evidence of possible remains of more than 2,300 children in suspected unmarked graves around former residential schools and Indian hospitals.
Special interlocuter
After more reports of possible graves, the federal government appointed an independent person to investigate the issue. Kimberly R. Murray was appointed as the independent special interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian residential schools.
Whoa, that’s a mouthful! Eschia, take it easy eh!
Anyways, Murray is to look into the missing children issue and recommend a new federal legal framework to ensure the respectful and culturally appropriate treatment of unmarked graves and burial sites of children associated with former residential schools.
She is to work closely with First Nations, Inuit and Métis governments, communities, survivors and families, and other relevant institutions. She was instructed to discuss with them how to identify, preserve and protect unmarked graves and burial sites, including how to bring remains home.
She will also look at federal, provincial and territorial laws, regulations, tools and practices that can be used to protect unmarked graves and burial sites. This includes looking at Indigenous laws and protocols to help describe the current legal framework.
She will deliver a report, with recommendations, to the federal minister of Justice and the attorney general of Canada.
The conference
The conference objectives included providing valuable information about unmarked graves and burial sites to participants and to generate interest in the North so we do more to address the issue.
The event began with the lighting of the qulliq and an empty chair ceremony. The small empty chair signified the children who never returned home.
Murray explained that she had already held several gatherings across the country. The Iqaluit gathering was the Northern one and a final meeting will occur in Ottawa this June.
We also heard from various presenters and panels, including one of survivors expressing thoughts about searching for and recovering missing children’s remains.
Additionally, high-ranking federal government officials explained what Canada was providing in terms of national resources and strategies to support searching for and recovering missing children.
This included funding for local research, engagement, and knowledge gathering; memorialization and commemoration; and fieldwork investigation including for ground-penetrating radar.
A very important session was on the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) in the United States. This act requires federally-funded institutions and agencies to transfer Native American human remains and other cultural items to the appropriate holders. Agencies affected include museums, universities, state agencies and local governments.
People trying to get a similar act passed in Canada are holding a conference called ‘Protecting Our Ancestors’ from Feb. 20-22 in Winnipeg. They will “explore the development of a national law to protect our ancestors in Canada.” To find out more about this very important conference, go to www.protectingourancestors.com.
Other sessions provided information on: where to start your search for records, youth views on searching for and recovering missing children, and from groups that were already working to identify unmarked graves with ground-penetrating radar. Historians formed an organization called Know History to help anyone with their search for loved ones.
Other activities included breakout sessions where survivors participated in sharing circles. Jean and I also delivered a couple of workshops to help people regulate themselves when they get triggered.
Our evenings included wonderful meals of traditional foods and cultural performances. We were also treated to a fine performance by Don Burnstick, who worked a lot about healing and wellness into his show. Several people commented that it was the best show they had seen him do. Well done, Don.
Personal visiting
This trip allowed me to revisit a place where I once worked as a young man. Of course, I had also been back in 2002, when Cody was in the Arctic Winter Games for soccer, and in 2022 when Jean and I provided support for the Pope’s visit.
We were also able to visit with Jean’s cousin Norbert Poitras and his spouse, Jennifer Hunt-Poitras. I hadn’t seen Norbert since they moved to Iqaluit a few years ago, so it was really nice to catch up.
I was glad to spend time with Levi Barnabus, with whom I had been an MLA just before Nunavut was created. Levi is now the vice-president of Qikiqtani Inuit Association (QIA), which advances the rights of the Inuit in the Baffin region.
QIA built and owns the hotel and conference centre where the conference was held. The centre is quite modern and would not be out of place in a southern city.
All in all, a very satisfying trip.
If you are interested in the finding out about the missing children initiative, you can Google “office of the independent special interlocutor for missing children.” The website has all the information you need to get started.