About 54 graves have been found in a former boarding school in Canada. Earlier this summer, the burial of hundreds of students in the country’s former residential schools sparked criticism around the world. Then the graves of the students were found again. An Indigenous people in Canada say they have found evidence of 54 unmarked graves at the sites of two former residential schools in Saskatchewan, the BBC reports.
The tombs were found near Fort Pelli and St. Philip’s residential schools, Kisikuz First Nation said. More than 1,100 anonymous graves have been found in former residential schools for minority children since last May. The incident brought to light the “black chapter” of Canadians’ persecution of ethnic minorities. A few weeks ago, Williams Lake First Nation (WLFN), an organization of Canada’s small ethnic groups, reported finding about 100 graves in a former Canadian boarding school.
The WLFN said in a statement that geological survey investigators had found 93 human graves at a former St. Joseph’s Mission residential school in British Columbia. They searched 14 hectares out of 460 hectares of the school and found these graves. The area is located 300 kilometers north of Kamloops in the province of British Columbia. Investigators found the bodies of 215 children in Kamloops last May.
According to the WLFN, from 18 to 1971, St. Joseph’s Mission operated hundreds of boarding schools for minority children. These schools were run as part of the Canadian government’s plan to ‘educate’ minority children. Thousands of children were studying in it.
WLFN chief Willie Sellers said in a statement: “There is still much work to be done in the St. Joseph area. We have a purpose behind continuing this work.
According to Canadian authorities, several investigations are underway into the former residential schools. It is estimated that 4,000 to 6,000 children went missing from residential schools at that time. From the 1800’s to the 1990’s, 1.5 million children of minority nationalities were enrolled in 139 residential schools across Canada.
A commission called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was formed in 2006 to look into the disappearance of children. A report released by the commission in 2015 found that many children had not returned to their families. This policy was ‘cultural genocide’.