Kamloops residential school discovery: What answers lie in religious archives?
The Royal B.C. Museum is giving some insight into what information exists in the religious archives of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
Genevieve Weber is the museum’s acting head of archives and has been processing records from the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the missionary group that operated the school as part of the Catholic Church.
Weber says the archives were acquired “a couple of years ago.” Previously, the records were stored in an archive run by the oblates in Vancouver.
“When the oblates began to centralize their operations, they began to divest themselves of their records by donating them to appropriate public archives across the country,” Weber told CTV News Vancouver.
She says there are four other locations across the country with archives from the oblates, but B.C. has the bulk of the material.
In fact, Weber says the museum has “about 250 bankers’ boxes” full of records. Those include official government documents, letters, correspondence, daily journals, diaries and reports.
“Some of the records are written in cursive and some people had very good handwriting and some didn’t,” Weber said, adding she is “very adept” at reading the script.
In addition to written items, the museum also has maps and plans of the sites and the buildings, photographs and sound recordings.
The key question is whether the archives contain any records of deaths or burials at the site of the school. Officially, there were 51 deaths recorded. The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation believes the deaths of the 215 children it recently found buried in unmarked graves were never documented.
“The community has reached out and asked us to look for any records that might indicate deaths or burials at the school and we haven’t found any records that explicitly talk about deaths and burials,” Weber said.
Even though archivists have not finished searching through the documents, Weber believes that kind of information won’t be found at all.
“We are not expecting to find explicit mention of all of the deaths, as in our research so far, it doesn’t seem like records exist that speak directly to that,” she said. “But, we do expect to have a better understanding of the conditions and what may have happened to some of the children.”
It’s likely any additional records of deaths and burials – if they ever existed – were either lost or destroyed.
“That's quite common with the state of some of the buildings. There were floods and fires and all sorts of reasons why some records did not survive,” Weber said.
WHAT DO THE ARCHIVES SAY?
Weber believes the documents will give an insight into the “conditions of life at the schools.” That could include evidence of disease outbreaks like measles, as well as the conditions of the buildings where the children lived.
According to information already recorded by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, in 1910, the school’s principal said that the government did not provide enough money to feed the students properly. In 1924, a portion of the school was destroyed by fire.
Weber says the documents also include information about the missionary work that the oblates did in the surrounding communities.
“There’s information that speaks to the conditions in general for the Indigenous people of that region at various points in time over the past 150 or so years,” she said. “It also speaks to the relationship between the Department of Indian Affairs and the school itself, as there’s a lot of letters and communication and reports back and forth between those two entities.”
The museum is in the process of digitizing the documents, which is happening with the assistance of UBC’s Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre.
“They have wonderful technology and the capability to safely store electronic records and share them in a way that can keep them restricted and private so that only the community members have access to them,” Weber said.
The first findings will be shared with the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in the coming weeks. Weber says it will then be up to the nation to decide what information will be made public.
If you are a former residential school student in distress, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419
Additional mental-health support and resources for Indigenous people are available here.
Correction
A previous version of this story misspelled Genevieve Weber's surname.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'Oh my God, you're my brother': Man in his 70s discovers 6 unknown siblings
After receiving a DNA kit one Christmas from his son-in-law, Hugh McCormick soon discovered that he had six unknown siblings, with whom he shared the same birth parents.
No refund for travellers who cancelled flight already scrapped by airline: regulator
Four years on, the controversy over whether airlines owed refunds to passengers after cancelling hundreds of thousands of flights during the pandemic continues to simmer, aggravated by a sluggish, opaque complaints process.
Just how bad are ultraprocessed foods? Here are 5 things to know
Many foods fall under the category of ultraprocessed foods, depending on their exact ingredients. This type of food has been studied a lot lately, and the results aren’t great.
'My family doctor just fired me': Ontario patients frustrated with de-rostering
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
Rates of cancer declining in Canada, but more work needed to save lives: projections
A new study projecting declining rates of cancer cases and deaths in Canada demonstrates the success of prevention and early detection programs, but also highlights areas where more work is needed to save and prolong lives, researchers say.
DEVELOPING Trump trial arrives at a pivotal moment: Star witness Michael Cohen is poised to take the stand
The star prosecution witness in Donald Trump's hush money trial is set to take the stand Monday with testimony that could help shape the outcome of the first criminal case against an American president.
India's mammoth election is more than halfway done as millions begin voting in fourth round
Millions of Indians across 96 constituencies began casting their ballots on Monday as the country's gigantic, six-week-long election edges past its halfway mark. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third straight term with an eye on winning a supermajority in Parliament.
Ottawa pizzeria places among top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world at international competition
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Man fatally 'slashed in the neck' in downtown Toronto, suspect outstanding
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.