First Nation, Catholic Church agree on residential school truths
WARNING: This story con‐ tains details of experiences at residential schools.
Tk̓ emlúps te Secwépemc and the Vancouver and Kam‐ loops arms of the Catholic Church have released the de‐ tails of a signed document agreeing to a historical record acknowledging the harms caused by residential schools and the role the church played.
On Easter Sunday, the Ro‐ man Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver, Diocese of Kam‐ loops and the First Nation gathered to sign a Sacred Covenant outlining how it will work with the First Nation to‐ ward reconciliation.
"The signing of this sacred covenant is a step in the right direction," Tk̓ emlúps te Secwépemc Kúkpi7 Rosanne Casimir said during a news conference on Wednesday.
"We all need to rebuild our relationships at every lev‐ el and walk this journey to‐ gether."
Archbishop J. Michael Miller said the church intends to work with Tk̓ emlúps te Secwépemc on a path to healing.
Agreed upon truth
The largest part of the Sacred Covenant is a set of agreedupon truths about the his‐ tory of the institution.
The covenant reads:
"The Catholic Church now recognizes that the conse‐ quences of Indian Residential Schools were profoundly negative and have had a lasting and damaging effect on Aboriginal culture, her‐ itage, and language. While some former students have spoken positively about their experience at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, these stories are overshad‐ owed by tragic accounts of the emotional, physical, and sexual abuse and neglect of helpless children, and their separation from their fami‐ lies and communities, includ‐ ing Secwepemc, Sylix, Nlaka'‐ pamux, and St'át'imc Na‐ tions."
Additionally, it says that regardless of what comes to light in the future, the Catholic parties agree that separating children from their families was harmful and "violates Catholic social teaching."
The covenant also con‐ tains a commitment from both parties to take further action to honour those truths and reconciliation, including memorials for children forced to attend residential schools, mental health sup‐ port and collaboration on the ongoing investigation into what happened at the institu‐ tion.
This comes after Tk'em‐ lúps te Secwépemc First Na‐ tion shared that preliminary findings from a ground-pene‐ trating radar survey found what is described as some 200 potential burial sites on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in May 2021.
"Elders and survivors have always spoken of children dy‐ ing and disappearing while at the school," Casimir said.
Residential schools were often underfunded and over‐ crowded, and according to the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (NC‐ TR), the education offered was poor.
Children forced to attend residential schools were pun‐ ished for speaking their own languages and engaging in other cultural practices, the NCTR says. Many suffered verbal, physical and sexual abuse at the hands of staff and other students.
"The schools hurt the chil‐ dren," the NCTR says on its website.
"Children were deprived of healthy examples of love and respect. The distinct cul‐ tures, traditions, languages, and knowledge systems of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples were eroded by forced assimilation."
The Kamloops Indian Res‐ idential School was in opera‐ tion from 1890 to 1969, when the federal government took over administration from the Catholic Church to operate it as a residence for a day school until it closed in 1978.
"The residential school system did do great damage to the language, customs, traditions in this community, and we see the ongoing im‐ pact of that today," Miller said.
"The church was wrong in how it complied in imple‐ menting a government colo‐ nialist policy which resulted in the separation of children from parents and their fami‐ lies."
Template for other agreements
The last action in the covenant is a plan to pass on this work to other First Na‐ tions and dioceses.
Both Casimir and Miller are hopeful other Indigenous and Christian communities across the country will estab‐ lish relationships and take steps toward reconciliation.
"We encourage all Catholics and indeed all
Canadians to learn more about the ongoing challenges faced by Indigenous people," Miller said.
Casimir said she believes the covenant sets a prece‐ dent for other communities.
"It takes everybody at every level to be walking that path and journey together," she said.
"I would encourage others to also build and establish those relationships, to be able to take those meaning‐ ful steps."
A national Indian Residen‐ tial School Crisis Line is avail‐ able to provide support for survivors and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour service at 1-866-925-4419.
Mental health counselling and crisis support are also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, through the Hope for Wellness hotline at 1-855-242-3310 or by online chat.