Province launching grant program to support Indigenous-lead research into unmarked grave sites

By John Watson Local Journalism initiative Reporter

The Province of Alberta is launching an $8 million grant program to support the research and discovery of unmarked burial sites and undocumented deaths at residential schools across the province.

The June 23 announcement comes in response to the discovery of the remains of 215 children in a mass burial site at a former residential school in Kamloops BC.

Minister of Indigenous Relations, Rick Wilson, said facing and acknowledging the events around residential schools is the starting point to reconciliation.

“I don’t believe I’m overstating it when I say that Canadians and Albertans are deeply shaken by this horrifying revelation,” he said. “In this country we’ve skirted the truth. Even though residential survivors and elders have been telling us for years that many children did not find their way home.”

First Nations communities and organizations will be able to apply online for grants of up to $150,000 

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said the province has a moral obligation to find the bodies of undocumented students, and to “recover their memory.”

“The discovery of 215 remains of students at the former Kamloops residential school has shaken our nation,” said Kenney. “The horrendousness of that system is hard for us today to comprehend, and we have been reminded that there have been many of those students who were buried in unmarked graves or graves that have been lost.”

The Operative Residential Schools Community Research Grants will be open both to First Nations and Métis communities who have proposals about how to research, identify these cemeteries, [and] how most appropriately to honor them.

The organizations which are awarded grants will dictate how the money is to be used, be it to scan for and potentially uncover grave sites, erect monuments, and gathering histories of the First Nations.

According to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, 25 residential school locations were identified and recognized in Alberta. 

Two of these were located in what is now Wheatland County – being the Crowfoot school in Cluny, and the Old Sun school in Gleichen.

Kenney added Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has made a number of recommendations that the province is taking action on.

“One of those recommendations … was for provinces and their chief coroners to work with the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation on identifying any archival records of where lived, [and] especially where they may have died at residential school sites in their provinces.”

Wilson said the goal is to distribute grant funding quickly and encourage any local research as much as possible.

“We want to roll this out as quick as we can, we’ve been hearing from a lot of First Nations that they are ready to move forward with this, they want to start the healing process,” he said.

Though funding will continue to roll out beyond it, the application deadline for organizations to request a grant is January 2022.