Over 1,000 marched through the streets of Chemainus on Monday, Aug. 2 in support of those affected by Canada's residential school system. (Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Alex Rawnsley

RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS

VIDEO: Massive march honours missing children from former Penelakut residential school

Aug 2, 2021 | 2:14 PM

Editor’s Note: The following story contains descriptions of trauma and abuse suffered by Indigenous children at Canada’s residential schools. Discretion is advised. The National Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide 24/7 support to residential school survivors and others who are affected. Call 1 (866) 925-4419.

CHEMAINUS — An overwhelming number of people turned out to show their support for children who never returned home from Canada’s residential schools.

Well over 1,000 people marched through the streets of Chemainus while hundreds more watched on during the March for Children, held Monday, Aug. 2 , to honour the children found in over 160 undocumented and unmarked graves at a former residential school site on Penelakut Island.

“Today we are walking for the children who didn’t have that chance to walk with us,” Penelakut Tribes Chief Joan Brown told the crowd after the march. “We are walking for them…walking with all the survivors, walking together as one. Today we honour them, they weren’t forgotten.”

The march was organized following discovery of remains by the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc of at least 215 children at a former residential school site in Kamloops.

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Scans at the Kuper Island Industrial School on Penelakut have been ongoing since 2014 with the Tribes confirming their discovery in early July 2021.

“We also found out our young loved ones were burned in an incinerator, were burned in a furnace, thrown in sacks and thrown overboard in the water besides buried on Penelakut,” Mike Charlie, a Penelakut elder said. “We’re a voice for the young ones who never made it home, the loved ones that never made it back to their communities.”

Charlie added the federal government and Catholic church must remain financially accountable for the abuse sustained by Indigenous people throughout Canada’s residential school history.

School District 79, representing the nearby Cowichan Valley, presented Penelakut Tribes leaders with a blanket as a sign of support for the work remaining to provide answers and closure to affected families.

“We want to share how much we love children and what this has done,” trustee Joe Thorne said as he fought back tears. “We wanted to help cover the children who were lost and now were found…finally they can go home.”

Andrew Martindale and Eric Simons have helped lead the way in ground penetrating radar searches of Penelakut Island since June 2014.

Martindale said they work in partnership with local leadership to bring scientific confirmation of a long-known truth among First Nations people.

“The Truth and Reconciliation Commission identified between 4,000 and 6,000 missing children in records but we don’t have all the records. Commissioner Murray Sinclair suggested it was five or 10 times that number. The number of missing children is in the tens of thousands all across this country and so this is a step forward on a very long journey.”

Representatives from several Island First Nations attended, as did a handful from areas around the Lower Mainland and interior of B.C.

Senior levels of government were represented by Nanaimo-Ladysmith MP Paul Manly and Nanaimo-North Cowichan MLA Doug Routley.

“It struck me that so many of these young people who were lost would be elders now and would be contributing to their community, offering their guidance and wisdom of a life well lived,” Routley said. “Instead not only were their lives taken but that great contribution to the fabric of their communities were taken.”

The province recently made available funding for searches at several residential school and hospital sites across B.C. in a bid to discover and identify more remains.

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alex.rawnsley@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @alexrawnsley