Episode 53: Marie Wilson - The Mass Grave at Kamloops Residential School

Ahkameyimok Podcast with Perry Bellegarde

***The subject matter and content of this episode may not be suitable for all listeners***

"We did hear of children's bones being found in the foundations of buildings when (Residential) schools were dismantled. We heard of children being thrown into furnaces. These were children. The little ones who have woken up in Kamloops this week, these are children calling out to all of us now."

Marie Wilson, former Commissioner on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which investigated crimes and abuses against Indigenous children at Residential Schools in Canada, joins the Ahkameyimok Podcast from Yellowknife to discuss the shocking find of a mass grave of 215 children at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. The grave was found on the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School at the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in British Columbia. Dr Wilson discusses her feelings on hearing of the the Kamloops mass grave, her memories of visiting that site as Commissioner, why her work on the TRC from 2009 to 2015 means she is shocked but not surprised by this mass grave and believes there are many more like it across Canada that need to be investigated, and why she believes the Pope and Catholic church, which ran the majority of the Residential Schools, needs to apologize for its role in what the TRC described as cultural genocide.

National Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419

For more on Residential Schools and the work of the Assembly of First Nations, please visit AFN.ca

The Ahkameyimok Podcast is produced by David McGuffin of Explore Podcast Productions

Our theme music is performed by the Red Dog Singers.