IN SOLIDARITY WITH INDIGENOUS FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES

WARNING: This post contains distressing details about racism, colonization, and death.

Dear ATS Community,

We are deeply saddened by the confirmation of unmarked burial sites on the grounds of former residential schools in Canada. 

215 bodies have been found near the site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School, on the lands of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation, in British Columbia, Canada. As many as 751 bodies have been found near the site of the Marieval Indian Residential School, on the lands of the Cowessess First Nation, in Saskatchewan, Canada. Many other investigations are currently underway. 

We would like to acknowledge the precious life and dignity of every one of these individuals, the majority of whom were children.

These residential schools were instruments of cultural assimilation and genocide. They are a disgraceful and tragic component of Canada’s colonial history. Their devastating effects live on today in the intergenerational trauma, systemic oppression, and inequality that many Indigenous individuals and communities continue to face.

We are in solidarity with Indigenous families and communities, whose pain we can only begin to imagine, in pursuing truth and reconciliation. We support the demand for meaningful, collaborative reparative action from the federal government, and the call for a formal apology from the Catholic church.

We are actively pursuing avenues of dialogue with Indigenous artists and scientists and are forming a plan of action to collaborate in the future.

– ATS Team

GET HELP:

• The Indian Residential School Survivors Society can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-721-0066.

• A 24-hour national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up and can be contacted by calling 1-866-925-4419.

• Within B.C., the KUU-US Crisis Line Society crisis line is available 24-hours a day, seven days a week and can be reached at 1-800-588-8717.

MAKE A DONATION:

• Indian Residential School Survivors Society
• KUU-US Crisis Line Society
• First Nations Child and Family Caring Society
• Legacy of Hope Foundation
• National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation 
• Reconciliation Canada 
• Orange Shirt Society

LEARN MORE:

• Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report
• Assembly of First Nations Education Toolkit
• Montreal Indigenous Community NETWORK Ally Toolkit
• Anishinabek Nation Educational Resources 
• University of Alberta’s Indigenous Canada Free Course
• Native Land Online Map Tool