Manitoba allocating $2.5M to identify and commemorate residential school burial sites

The Manitoba government has followed through on a commitment it made last year to fund searches for Indigenous children who died while attending residential schools.

The announcement was made as a ceremony was held in Long Plain First Nation on former school grounds that still have to be searched.

While the money is being welcomed, provincial officials and Indigenous leaders said it’s only the beginning of a long and difficult process.

“Once we find the unmarked graves, we can’t stop there,” Betty Ross, a residential school survivor, told a crowd gathered outside the former Portage la Prairie residential school. “There has to be ceremony upon ceremony upon ceremony because we need to take back our children.”

The Manitoba government has given $2.5 million to Indigenous governments and organizations which it previously announced in June 2021 after the discovery of unmarked graves in Kamloops.

Officials said that money will be divvied up among communities.

“We have to remember those children who didn’t make it home and that’s really what this was about today and also just listening to survivors and their stories,” Premier Heather Stefanson, told reporters.

In Manitoba, there are 18 former residential school sites and 11 First Nations have plans or have already started to use ground-penetrating radar to conduct searches.

First Nations leaders said Wednesday the funding can’t stop.

“We require active and sustainable government support to achieve long-term solutions,” said Jennifer Bone, Chief of Sioux Valley Dakota Nation. “Today is an important step in building the foundation for the work that lies ahead.”

Following the ceremony, people joined hands for a round dance surrounding a monument for Indigenous children forced to attend residential schools like the one in Long Plain which is now a museum documenting the dark chapter in Canadian history.

“I had chicken pox as a little wee girl in Brandon (residential school), to stop me from scratching and itching they tied my hands and feet to the bed,” said Brenda Myran, a residential school survivor and museum board member.

For many family members and survivors including Lorraine Daniels, the museum’s executive director, being at the school brings back painful memories and reminders of the lasting legacy of the government-sponsored, church-run school system that severed ties with Indigenous language and culture.

“I think we need to educate and keep the legacy alive so that our children, our grandchildren, great-grandchildren will know the truth and also the rest of Canada—they need to know the truth,” Daniels said.

While searches have been conducted in the area over the past three years, the actual grounds outside the former Portage residential school have yet to be examined for potential unmarked graves.

Kyra Wilson, Chief of Long Plain First Nation, said that will happen in time, in consultation with survivors, Elders and other First Nations.

“I know with this school in particular we are going to be looking at what the process is going to be for Long Plain and any other communities that had children attend this school,” Wilson told reporters.

Back inside the school, that work gives hope to survivors who are glad their voices are now being heard.

“They’re not nice stories but I share them because I feel like it’s important that people know,” Myran said.

The Manitoba government said it wants the searches to be Indigenous-led so it’s providing the money and allowing First Nations leaders to decide how it will be split up among communities.

Alan Lagimodiere, Manitoba’s Minister of Indigenous Reconciliation and Northern Affairs, acknowledged this is the beginning of a long process. But it’s not clear at this time what additional support will be offered going forward.