Crosses along Highway 5 near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/RDCphotographer
June 25, 2021 - 8:00 PM
Since the remains of 215 children were found at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site, crosses and dresses have been erected along Highway 5 to honour those who didn’t make it home.
Kamloops resident Bob Clark captured photos of the crosses earlier this month.
The children's remains were discovered last month by the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc, who used a ground-penetrating radar specialist to find the missing children.
Indigenous children from 36 communities across B.C.'s Interior are recorded as having attended the school, while data collected by the history and dialogue centre lists 38 additional communities from where children were sent to the school between 1943 and 1952.
The discovery has prompted an outpouring of support for Indigenous communities across the country, demands for an apology from the Pope, as the Catholic Church oversaw operations of the residential schools, and calls for the federal government to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's recommendations.
READ MORE: Hundreds of truckers greeted by spectators at Kamloops rally
On June 24, the remains of 751 were discovered on a former Saskatuchaean Marieval Indian Residential School site.
READ MORE: First Nation says 751 unmarked graves found at Saskatchewan residential school site
Roughly 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children attended residential schools between the 1860s and 1996. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission documented stories from survivors and families and issued a report in 2015 which detailed mistreatment, including emotional, physical and sexual abuse.
It said there were at least 4,100 deaths.
- With files from The Canadian Press
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