residential schools news, opinion and analysis

(Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre | Photos courtesy of Formline Architecture and Urbanism)

Inside UBC’s Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre

Fusing Western design with Indigenous tradition is at the heart of architect Alfred Waugh’s craft

The final audience stands with Pope Francis and members of the Indigenous delegation where the Pontiff delivered an apology for the Catholic Church’s role in Canada's residential school system, at the Vatican, April 1, 2022. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Vatican Media)

Pope Francis apologizes for residential school abuses

Politics Insider for April 1: First Nations delegates make progress at the Vatican; Trudeau pushes for a G19; and a Wildrose battle

Cowessess First Nation held a vigil where 751 unmarked graves were discovered at the site of the former Marieval Indian Residential School (Amru Salahuddien/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

We failed to hear them when they lived. We are obliged to hear them now.

The residential school children who rest in unmarked graves are lost to their communities. But the shared knowledge of their fates has its own compelling power. That is why they top our 2022 Power List.

A memorial outside the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, in Kamloops, B.C., on July 15, 2021. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)

Ways, big and small, Canadians are marking the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Here’s how some are observing the day for reflecting on the tragic history of residential schools

Once a welcome shelter, the house where Ignace’s aunt and uncle let him stay has fallen into ruin (Ron Ignace)

I ran away from the Kamloops Residential School. This is where I hid.

On his 16th birthday, Ron Ignace’s residential school allowed him to go into town unsupervised. He didn’t go back, instead hiding in his aunt and uncle’s house. ’That was the best damn decision I ever made in my life.’

A class in penmanship at the Red Deer Institute in 1914 or 1919. (Courtesy of the United Church of Canada Archives)

Finding David Lightning: The decades-long quest to locate an unmarked grave

In 1987, a Cree Elder went looking for his brother’s final resting place. His quest is now a beacon in the search for residential school graves.

The Shubenacadie Residential School in the 1940s (Courtesy of The Chronicle Herald)

The search for graves—and truth—at a Nova Scotia residential school

For decades, former students of the Shubenacadie Residential School shared accounts of deaths and at least one burial at the facility

The Mohawk Institute Residential School, referred to by former students as ‘the Mush Hole’ (Photograph by Alex Jacobs-Blum)

This entire country is haunted

Alicia Elliott: As we’re seeing more and more every day, this entire country is a real-life Indian burial ground—one that criminals parading as teachers, religious leaders and politicians took great care to cover up

Activists protest Egerton Ryerson on Ryerson University campus on June 6th, 2021. Ryerson was the chief superintendent of education for Upper Canada and is considered instrumental in the design and implementation of the Indian Residential School System. (Nadya Kwandibens/Red Works Photography)

A diploma with the wrong name

Waubgeshig Rice: We knew that succeeding at Ryerson University, named after a man who would have never wanted us there in the first place, would be the ultimate educational triumph

Memorial to residential school victims outside Parliament Hill in Ottawa. (Shelby Lisk)

Screaming into silence

Cindy Blackstock: I believe those little spirits buried on the grounds of residential schools came to ensure the work gets done to end the injustices facing survivors

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