By now you have heard of the 215 unmarked graves found in BC a few weeks ago. You may have been angered, hurt, confused. But then a shocking number was presented to us today, this one coming out of The Cowessess First Nation in southeast Saskatchewan , who made the horrific discovery of 751 unmarked graves at the Marieval Indian Residential School. The Marieval residential school operated from 1898 to 1996 in the Qu’Appelle Valley. It was run by the Roman Catholic Church until Cowessess First Nation took over its operations in 1981.
My reaction to this is the same as my reaction to concentration camps. Disgust, deep saddness, anger…
Sadly, it’s the tip of the iceberg: There were >130 residential schools. Is Canada ready to face the genocide it participated in? Are we ready to deal with the reckoning? In the meantime, what can we do? What can you do?
Some are calling for the cancelling of Canada Day…is that the answer? Surely that’s not even close to being enough…but what is?
Don Amero is an Indigenous Canadian Country artist, who took the opportunity recently to discuss this and help us to navigate what we need to do with this information. It’s conversation we all should be having…
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