Lily Gladstone Instagram – Today, I remember the #215 children found in Kamloops. My heart beats for every parent of a precious Indigenous life, whether they walk the earth today, or now tred a trail of stars.
These 215 are now counted amongst the thousands more children lost to the genocide of every Residential and Boarding school across Canada and the US. This is a living history for every Native family in some way shape or form, and though we live with it generationally, seeing it so widely covered in the media is in many ways a new and very tender experience.
Art by @gaysalishart, a father himself. He suggests making a donation to Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS) — though their donation form online has exceeded its quota, there are contacts listed, and it is an incredible resource.
I suggest supporting your local mutual aid programs that serve Native folks living daily with the legacy of assimilation and termination. Check out @indigenousmutualaid and visit their website to connect (there is a list of groups from all over.)
From Reuters’ Anna Mehler Paperny
“The remains of 215 children, some as young as three years old, were found at the site of . . . the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. The school closed in 1978, according to the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation, which said the remains were found with the help of a ground penetrating radar specialist.
“We had a knowing in our community that we were able to verify,” Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Chief Rosanne Casimir said in a statement. “At this time, we have more questions than answers.””
… If I were home with her, I’d hug my sweet Gramma today, who went to Chemawa Indian School in the early 1940s — a mixed and difficult experience she speaks very little of, other than to say she either “hated it”, or to joke about how she is only a Catholic because at age 9 she decided to go to the school’s Catholic services instead of the Presbyterian ones, because it’s where all her friends would go and she didn’t want to sit with anyone else. So many of our sweet and salty elders now are often a survivor of one of these schools, so remember to treat them with a lot of love today — and always. 🧡 | Posted on 31/May/2021 23:16:56
