By Chris Brown

$8 million for Indigenous communities

Alberta creates fund to locate and honour residential school site victims

Jun 23, 2021 | 12:34 PM

The province has created an $8 million fund to help Alberta Indigenous communities to research undocumented deaths and reclaim and identify unmarked burial sites at residential schools.

The province says the Alberta Residential Schools Community Research Grant is open to Indigenous communities and groups that will lead the research into the tragic legacy of Canada’s residential school program in Alberta.

Premier Jason Kenney said the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report underscored the importance of the research being led by Indigenous communities.

“Each of them will have their own approach about what is the best way and we will honour that,” he said.

The premier said many First Nations communities have already done great work to discover and honour the lost burial sites.

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But there is more to be done and the province wants to do more to help.

“The trauma has for many families has become intergenerational and we hope that his action will be one small evidence of the desire of Albertans to pursue the path of reconciliation and to honour those children whose lives were lost,” Kenney said.

Chief Billy Morin of the Enoch Cree Nation west of Edmonton said the $8 million in funding is a great start. He thanked the province for the flexibility of the grants and putting the decision-making in the hands of the Indigenous communities.

He also said the University of Alberta’s Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology has already reached out with offers of help. But that may not always be the chosen path for communities and the research.

“Maybe it’s not hard, heavy archaeological work. Maybe it’s more about creating that permanent story and a monument,” Morin said.

Alberta had the largest number of residential schools. At various times between 1872 and 1975, 25 federally-funded and church-run schools operated in the province.

Kenney said many of the sites no longer exist and have in a sense been lost to history.

“Yet we can conclude that all or most of those sites must have graves close to them. And so we will be providing these grants to First Nations and Metis communities who have proposals about how to research and identify these unmarked graves and cemeteries and how best to honour them,” he said.

Alberta is the latest province to commit funds to help locate unmarked burial sites from residential schools following the discovery last month of the remains of 215 children at a former residential school site in Kamloops, B.C.

Kenney said the discovery of those remains has shaken our nation.

He said it’s “called on all of us to reflect on the wickedness of the Indian residential school system which existed in this country for a century.”

He added the horrendousness of that system is hard to comprehend even today.

In a release, the province says grant funding will be available to Indigenous communities and organizations for the following purposes:

• Community-driven research, including gathering oral histories and knowledge of elders (as appropriate).
• Community-led engagement to determine how communities wish to proceed with a burial site.
• Use of ground-penetrating radar and other technologies to explore potential unmarked burial sites.
• Partnering with experts experienced in locating human burials.
• Maintenance and commemorative work, such as installation or restoration of grave markers, placement of memorials or commemoration events.

Individual applications can receive up to a maximum of $150,000.

Applications are now available and will be accepted until Jan. 15, 2022.