For most Indigenous cultures, death is a beginning.
For Anishinaabe, my people, the end of life in a person’s body represents the start of a spiritual journey; a road that person will travel to the west — where a beautiful celebration, feast, and lodge full of life and ancestors wait for them.
One of the most important steps in helping a relative take this journey is a respectful burial of their human “vessel.” This involves preparing, dressing, and giving instructions and teachings while presenting gifts to help them on their path.
Then, at the gravesite, family members and relations place sacred medicines and other offerings alongside the body. This marks the space, blesses the person, and illustrates a commitment to always remember their life.
A burial ground for Indigenous peoples (like all peoples) is therefore sacred, remembered, and an honoured space.
On Wednesday, Pimicikamak Cree Nation Chief David Monias announced 187 “anomalies” had been found with ground penetrating radar at the nearby St. Joseph’s Residential School (formerly called Cross Lake Indian Residential School), which operated from 1912-1969.
The St. Joseph’s school was the primary residential school in Manitoba’s north, with about 1,240 students from 24 communities travelling through its doors.
“The analysis of the 187 anomalies at depths reaching one metre to two metres,” Monias announced, “suggest a significant number of potential burial sites.” Analyzed and compared with thousands of other anomalies, the findings offer clues to the disappearance of more than 80former students from the community — names found through archival research and Catholic church records — and suggest the list may be longer and include students from other communities.
“It’s quite shocking to hear that many,” Monias added, “because you wonder: how many missing children are there?”
For more than half a century, the citizens of Pimicikamak have searched for their children.
Some are known to have died when the St. Joseph’s school burnt down and a dozen were buried. Alongside researchers, the community now knows of at least 85 more who have simply disappeared.
After the findings of more than 1,000 potential unmarked graves found by ground penetrating radar in 2021 at former residential school sites in B.C. and Saskatchewan, federal funding became available to Pimicikamak to begin their own search.
This came after the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation commission, which identified that the whereabouts of thousands of residential school students remain unknown.
In July 2022, community members began working with researchers to investigate the grounds in and around the former St. Joseph’s school.
During the news conference, community leaders were clear the anomalies were rectangular and could not be misunderstood to be rocks or tree stumps but show evidence of “disturbed ground” that resemble “graves.”
This was likely to dispel conspiracy theories that deny the atrocities of residential schools and seek to undermine the value of searches.
Ground penetrating radar emits electromagnetic waves that illustrate shapes in the earth but is sophisticated enough to show the difference between naturally-occurring voids and organic items and foreign, large materials deposited in soil.
Disturbed soil that resembles graves may be all that can be found in sites that range from 50 to a century old, anyway.
Human remains decompose quickly and all that is often left is microscopic DNA — which, when testing soil samples, is tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack.
In other words, the expectation that one day a community will somehow exhume human remains will never happen.
Anyone who desires this to “prove” unmarked graves at residential school sites exist is simply misinformed or doesn’t understand science.
Still, the search for the children of Pimicikamak continues. The 187 anomalies will now undergo further testing and investigation to both identify human remains and archival research will continue to try and determine names.
Most importantly, some other steps can begin.
“In response to these findings” Monias announced, “the (Pimicikamak) nation will conduct ceremonies at the identified sites to honour those who may be buried there and for those who never returned so we can help them find their souls and find their peace in the spirit world.”
For those watching the unfolding story of unmarked graves at residential school sites across Canada, this part is, in fact, the point.
The search for lost residential school children isn’t about expressing anger at churches, governments, or Canadians — although it’s an understandable side effect.
The search for unmarked graves of Indigenous children is about giving those most disregarded, mistreated, and forgotten in Canada a dignified burial — as any human being deserves.
It’s about Indigenous communities finding loved ones.
It’s about identifying sacred, remembered, and honoured space.
It’s about helping a person find a lodge, full of life, where their ancestors wait for them.
niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca
Niigaan Sinclair
Columnist
Niigaan Sinclair is Anishinaabe and is a columnist at the Winnipeg Free Press.
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