Thread by @ShannonDea1

Settler and arrivant Canadian looking to learn more, please take the time to read Volume 4 of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. The title of that volume: "Missing Children and
Unmarked Burials." trc.ca/assets/pdf/Vol… 1/n

It is important to know that the issue of unmarked graves at residential schools takes up an entire 273-page volume of the TRC's final report. Moreover, the material in that volume was not a new discovery. Rather, the volume pulls together existing documents & testimony. 2/n

That is, six years ago, when the TRC final report was released, we already had a very clear picture of what Indigenous people had long known -- that many Indigenous children died at residential schools (a far higher proportion than children's deaths in the general population) 3/n

...and that for most of the history of the residential school system, the norm was to inter children's bodies at or near residential schools rather than sending them home. 4/n

Now would be a very good time for you (and me!) to read Volume 4 to understand the extent of the problem, and the calls to action to redress this injustice. 5/n

Here are the key takeaways from the executive summary of Vol. 4 of the TRC final report (all quoted verbatim from pp. 1-2): 6/n

The Commission has identified 3,200 deaths on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Register of Confirmed Deaths of Named Residential School
Students and the Register of Confirmed Deaths of Unnamed Residential School Students.
7/n

For just under one-third of these deaths (32%), the government and the schools did not record the name of the student who died.
8/n

For just under one-quarter of these deaths (23%), the government and the schools did not record the gender of the student who died.
9/n

For just under one-half of these deaths (49%), the government and the schools did not record the cause of death.
10/n

Aboriginal children in residential schools died at a far higher rate than schoolaged children in the general population.
11/n

For most of the history of the schools, the practice was not to send the bodies of students who died at schools to their home communities.
12/n

For the most part, the cemeteries that the Commission documented are abandoned, disused, and vulnerable to accidental disturbance.
13/n

The federal government never established an adequate set of standards and regulations to guarantee the health and safety of residential school students.
14/n

The federal government never adequately enforced the minimal standards and regulations that it did establish.
15/n

The failure to establish and enforce adequate regulations was largely a function of the government’s determination to keep residential school costs to a minimum.
16/n

The failure to establish and enforce adequate standards, coupled with the failure to adequately fund the schools, resulted in unnecessarily high death rates at residential schools.
17/n

Here are the calls to action from Vol. 4:
18/n

71) We call upon all chief coroners and provincial vital statistics agencies that have not provided to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada their records on the deaths of Aboriginal children in the care of residential school authorities to make these documents..
19/n

...available to the National Centre for Truth
and Reconciliation.
20/n

72) We call upon the federal government to allocate sufficient resources to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to allow it to develop and maintain the National Residential School Student Death Register established by the TRC of Canada.
21/n

73) We call upon the federal government to work with the churches and Aboriginal community leaders to inform the families of children who died at residential
schools of the child’s burial location...
22/n

...and to respond to families’ wishes for appropriate commemoration ceremonies and markers, and reburial in home communities where requested.
23/n

74) We call upon the federal government to work with churches, Aboriginal communities, and former residential school students to establish and maintain an online registry of residential school cemeteries,...
24/n

...including, where possible, plot maps showing the location of deceased residential school children.
25/n

75) We call upon the federal government to work with provincial, territorial, and municipal governments, churches, Aboriginal communities, former residential
school students, and current landowners to develop and implement strategies and procedures...
26/n

...for the ongoing identification, documentation, maintenance, commemoration, and protection of residential school cemeteries or other sites at which residential school children were buried...
27/n

...This is to include the provision of appropriate memorial ceremonies and commemorative markers to honour the deceased children.
28/n

Read all of Vol. 4 "Missing Children and
Unmarked Burials" here: trc.ca/assets/pdf/Vol…
29/n

https://twitter.com/fsinations/status/1407836556543631361

FIN