NationTalk: October 1, 2024: OTTAWA, ON, Sept. 30, 2024 – On the fourth annual “National Day of Truth and Reconciliation,” Indian Residential School Survivors have released a report taking the federal government to task for drastically cutting funding for the investigations into missing children and unmarked burials associated with these schools.

“We’re sorting through more than 150 years of history, fighting to access documents held by multiple organizations and jurisdictions, and searching for graves that were never marked. And now, rather than honour the missing children – some as young as four years old – who were forced into these schools, rather than focus on our collective healing, we must once again plead with the Federal Government to live up to its commitments. That’s not truth, and that’s not reconciliation,” said Laura Arndt, Executive Lead of The Survivors’ Secretariat, a not-for-profit organization representing the Survivors of the Mohawk Institute, Canada’s oldest and longest-running Indian Residential School.

More than 6,000 children are estimated to have died while attending residential schools, many buried in unmarked graves and forgotten. The Federal Government created the Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund in 2021 to support indigenous communities with investigations, memorialization and commemoration. Over the first three years, the fund provided $216.6 million to support 144 indigenous communities from across Canada with their work. But in the 2024 Budget, just $91 million was committed for the next two years – which will have a dramatic if not devastating impact, both on communities where work has already started, and communities still hoping to secure funding.

“Many survivors are in their 80s and 90s. We rely on their lived experiences to guide this research,” said Roberta Hill, a Survivor of the Mohawk Institute and board member of The Survivors’ Secretariat. “As a Survivor, I want to know the truth of what happened during my time in the Indian Residential School. We heard ‘we are sorry’ from the government. Now I want to know what they are sorry for. I want to find the children who never came home. I want truth before reconciliation. And right now, it feels as if the government is putting saving dollars ahead of finding the truth.”

Entitled A Time for Truth: Knowledge is Sacred; Truth is Healing, the report chronicles three days of discussions and knowledge-sharing this past August in Thunder Bay. And it includes six demands made by Survivors that they say must be met if Canada is indeed to move forward towards truth and earn reconciliation. They are:

1. That Canada give Survivors access to their own records, including all 23 million documents identified but not released to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, and all RCMP records related to missing children and unmarked burials associated with Indian Residential Schools.
2. That Canada provide robust, stable, long-term funding for investigations into missing children and unmarked burials.
3. That communities must be self-determining in the type of aids required to support their investigations, and ensure funding for these requests.
4. That Canada honour the promise of Reconciliation based on truth by committing formally to a complete account of the Indian Residential School experience.
5. That Canada include support for memorialization and public commemoration as a central part of funding.
6. That Canada include support for the creation of spaces for sharing, learning, and healing as part of its funding commitment.

Dr. Scott Hamilton is an Archaeologist at Lakehead University and advisor to The Survivors’ Secretariat and other Indigenous communities on their investigations. He says the government and people across Canada have an obligation to heed the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls for action and provide communities with sufficient supports to complete the work being undertaken.

“The Indian Residential School era has left an enduring, painful legacy that continues to impact Indigenous communities across Canada. The work involved in these investigations is complex. It will take more than just five years to uncover the truth behind what happened at the schools over more than a century. Documenting and sharing the truth is an essential part of our healing as a nation along this pathway to reconciliation,” said Dr. Hamilton.

The report and a video “Standing with Survivors” can be found at: Knowledge is Sacred, Truth is Healing website

About The Survivors’ Secretariat

The Survivors’ Secretariat is a Survivor-led, community-involved and trauma-informed organization established in 2021 to Uncover, Document, and Share the truth about what happened to the children at Mohawk Institute Indian Residential School located in Brantford, ON. The Secretariat coordinates and supports the investigation into missing children and unmarked burials associated with the institution’s 140+ year legacy through the organization’s four pillars of Ground Search, Document Collection, Advocacy and Commemoration. The Secretariat is currently investigating the 600+ acres associated with the former institute and is compiling relevant documents into a searchable database that will be accessible to Survivors, their families and impacted communities indefinitely. For more information, visit Survivors’ Secretariat

Media Contact: Eva Lannon & Associates, (416) 300-9721 or elannonassoc@gmail.com