Letter of Support 2021

 We the PAC of ¿Uuqinak’uuh Grandview Elementary express our heartfelt sorrow at the discovery of 215 undocumented children’s graves at Kamloops Residential School. Our hearts are heavy, and our community is grieving.

Given that our PAC is a majority-settler committee representing a majority-Indigenous school, we acknowledge the particular importance of issuing a statement declaring our solidarity and support with our community. We know that residential schools are living history. Living members of our community survived Kamloops Residential School, lost family members there or to the trauma of surviving Kamloops, or went through similar ordeals at schools just like Kamloops in Canada or the US. This grief is not in the past; it is woven into the lives of many in our community.

We also want to acknowledge that what is being reported in the news right now is not new. It has been known to our communities, and to all of the mothers, fathers, and siblings who have been asking for generations what happened to their family members. We also accept in sorrow the surety that there are many more similar discoveries to be made, and argue that investigating each and every residential school site is a necessary part of the reconciliation process.

Therefore, we stand in solidarity with survivors of the residential schools and their families, and join our voices calling for provincial and federal governments to fund the thorough investigation of all residential school sites. We also call on the Roman Catholic church to take responsibility both by formally apologizing for the wrongs done and by providing funding for education, counselling, and support for residential school survivors and their families (TRC calls #58-61).

Lastly, we call on all levels of governments to honour and adopt each and every call to action recommended by the Truth and Reconciliation Committee. As a school-based committee, we bring attention especially to action items 1-5, that call upon the government to improve the welfare of Indigenous children, which still lags behind that of other children in Canada, and items 6-12, which call upon the government to improve the educational opportunities of Indigenous children, who still experience significant educational achievement gaps. We, ¿uuqinak’uuh Grandview Parent Advisory Council commit to encouraging, facilitating, and engaging Indigenous-based improvements for Indigenous children’s welfare and educational opportunities for Indigenous students at ¿uuqinak’uuh Grandview.

We understand that the residential school system required the collusion of church, state, and private citizens and organizations. As we the PAC continue to learn how to move forward and contribute meaningfully to reconciliation, we also acknowledge that there is still much work to be done to dismantle these same institutional structures that continue to disadvantage Indigenous people across Canada today.

Since the PAC began working on this letter, 104 bodies were found on the grounds of the Brandon Residential School in Manitoba, at least 70 buried bodies have been found at school sites in Saskatchewan, and the bodies of 10 students from the Carlisle school in Pennsylvania are being returned to their peoples in Alaska and South Dakota. This will not be the last we will hear, and given the 4,100 missing children estimated in the TRC, there are many more children our friends, families, and community members are still hoping to find. We mourn the 215 little lost souls of Kamloops Residential School and honour the others that have been found and those about whom we are still waiting to hear, and support all those within our community and across the country still working through the trauma of the residential school system.

Sincerely,

¿uuqinak'uuh Grandview Parent Advisory Council (PAC)

We acknowledge that we live, work, and play on the unceded and ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations. Although most of us are uninvited guests, may all of our actions honour the land.