Searching For Unmarked Burials At Residential Schools in Canada: Leave No Child Behind

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Boarding And Residential Schools: Healing, Survivance And Indigenous Persistence", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Discussions on Residential Schools in Canada have been focused on a system that began in the late 1800,s. However, those discussions ignore the first 240 years of Residential School history. The first Residential School in Canada opened in 1620 in Quebec City. Minimally this history includes 886 locations across Canada including Residential Schools, Indian day Schools and Indian Hospitals. In 1907 Dr. Peter Bryce reported that 25 % to 69 % of children died in Residential Schools that he had assessed. Government reports state that minimally 150,000 children attended residential schools, which would amount according to the Bruce report to minimally 37,000 deaths, far more than the 4,000 to 6,000 discussed by the Canadian government. The number of Indigenous children who died or went missing from Residential Schools may never be known. However, It is imperative we search for, acknowledge, and remember them all, and leave no child behind.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Boarding And Residential Schools: Healing, Survivance And Indigenous Persistence   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow