Navia Robinson Instagram – The ‘Kamloops Indian Residential School’ in 1937. You might be thinking, what is a residential school? The residential school system was a network of mandatory boarding schools across The United States, Canada, and Australia meant to forcibly assimilate Indigenous children into western society by stripping them of their native language, traditions and culture. The last of which only closed as recent as 1996. The children at these schools were mistreated, abused, and assaulted, enduring physical and phycological harm. In Canada, between 1863 and 1996, more than 150,000 indigenous children were taken from their families and placed in these schools, a large number of which never returned home.  Just a month ago, on May 28th, representatives of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation reported finding the remains of 215 children that were buried at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School that is pictured above. Just a few weeks later, on June 24, the Cowessess First Nation announced that up to 751 unmarked graves were detected at the site of the Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan. Then, on June 30 members of the Ktunaxa Nation, revealed that another 182 unmarked graves holding children’s remains was uncovered at the site of the former St. Eugene’s Mission School. Over 1,000 indigenous children, now unidentifiable, because of abhorrent neglect. We cannot leave these truths, no matter how shameful and despicable, unspoken. The cultural genocide of Indigenous people was directly funded and inflicted by western governments, through these residential “schools”. To move forward progressively in the fight for BIPOC justice, history and its everlasting impact, must be acknowledged. Please make time to independently research the extent of atrocities committed against indigenous peoples as a result of western colonialism — Swipe for resources! 🌱