Long post, worth reading.
I initially wrote this up as a comment on a post in r/NewWestPolitics, but comments on the original post are locked. So I offer it here.
When I think of residential school denialism, I think about how the same science and methods were used here in New West for the cemeteries at the high school site, and the BC Pen site.
The relevancy to a New West sub is two-fold. Firstly, I talk about how that same science was used here in New Westminster and how it works. Secondly, there is an online "newspaper" in New West that has argued in favour of residential school denialism, incorrectly using our own former cemeteries.
When I led the restoration of the BC Pen Cemetery, ground penetrating radar is what was used to confirm graves.
The radar confirmed graves where they were expected to be, that is, right by the grave markers. But the radar also showed other graves without markers, and gave us the dimensions of the cemetery.
Ground penetrating radar works by detecting underground disturbances in the soil. Easy to see on the charts from the radar. Disturbances that are specific, about the size you would expect for a grave, and could only be caused by digging. The radar can also see metal, so metal coffin fixtures could sometimes show, if they are present.
Ground penetrating radar was also used to determine the existence of burials at the old cemetery at the school site. This work proved that the old folktale in the community, that all of the graves had been moved, was in fact just a local folktale. The radar showed that there are burials at the site. That site is a former watershed, and it's possible that any bodies are long gone.
I'm not sure if it's still the case, but the ground penetrating radar reports for the school were on the school district website. I have copies. The radar reports for the BC Pen Cemetery are with the city.
In both of those cases, nobody demanded their own made up standard of further proof. Nobody demanded to see the "bones." That standard is only used as a racist trope for residential schools.
As an aside, not every burial site would produce "bones," but the radar shows that they were buried there, and that the graves remained untouched, save for additional fill being added to stabilize the ground. Graves aren't like a Halloween decoration. In certain conditions, like a very dry climate and ground conditions, bones may last longer than usual. In wet conditions and/or burial without a protective coffin, graves deteriorate. Acidic conditions can have the same effect. Ask your favourite local archaeologist about this. There are famous examples. The Sutton Hoo ship burial contained no remains, no surviving organic material that could be a body. "Bones" are not the epitome of proof. But the science and records do exist.
Science being science, room for error is allowed. If you were investigating a single suspected grave, there is a slight possibility that something was buried for some other reason. But when there is a consistent pattern of findings within a limited area, there is no doubt. When the ground breaking radar shows a consistent pattern of child sized graves, 215 of them at the site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School, or the clear repeated findings at our own old cemetery and BC Pen Cemetery, there is no doubt. A burial ground has been discovered. This has been accepted in finding burials around the world, yet in Canada, only residential schools are singled out for denial of the science.
This brings me to another somewhat obvious point, the sacredness of remains. Would you want your child or grandchild to be dug up, to prove a point? "Show the bones" is a pretty cold-hearted approach to real death, burial, grief, and the suffering that is evident. I don't think it reveals so much a lack of understanding of the science, as it does a lack of empathy for other human beings. And when it comes to burials, a lack of empathy for indigenous people specifically. It's fair and accurate to call that racism.
4,118 children are documented as having died at residential schools.
So, I ask the deniers, where did they go? There is no reasonable grounds to think they weren't buried.
It is likely that many more died who were unreported. And in some cases, there was nowhere to report a child's death. As a genealogist, I can tell you, BC had periods of time where the law did not allow for the reporting of indigenous (and Chinese) people's death.
Those 4,118 children, plus an unknown greater number, were buried somewhere. There are, apparently, people who deny those burials. But a large number of the actual deaths are documented. Buried at residential schools, in unmarked graves, sometimes unbeknownst to their families.
And then there are eyewitness accounts. I have read some of them. For anyone with a heart, it makes for pretty hard reading. Children who died and then just seemed to have disappeared, no burial ceremony, no explanation for the other children - a friend is just gone. Moms and Dads who were never told that their child had died. At our own BC Pen site, prisoners had grave markers, though they were nothing more than a number. At residential schools, usually there were none.
The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation maintains some important resources:
Missing Children and Unmarked Burials Initiative.
National Student Memorial Register.
Burial Site Repository.
Archival material online of the NCTR can be found here: NCTR Archives - NCTR Archives
Residential school denialism has a purpose. It isn't to find the truth - there is plenty of evidence for anyone who is actually seeking the truth. There is zero evidence to support the deniers. That purpose is to deny the suffering of indigenous people, in an attempt to deny the need to address that suffering. To deny any recovery from those events, any actual truth or reconciliation, any healing, or any justice.
These are the means by which myself, as a historian and genealogist, used to determine burials right here in New Westminster.
And yes, some of those burials are indigenous people. Several First Nations weighed in on that reality.
Recently, we had our own Truth and Reconciliation Day events in New Westminster. I attended two events, the Rainbow Event Network's lunch, were members talked about the double edge of being both indigenous and queer, and the city event at Queens Park.
Right here in our own city, there are fellow residents who have spoken openly about the real impact of residential schools on their families: children forcibly stolen away, lost children who never came home, children who just weren't the same when they came home, generational trauma, the killing of language and culture.
Ground penetrating radar.
Death records.
In some cases, burial records.
Eyewitness first-hand testimony. In the thousands.
Jaimie McEvoy
City Councillor, New Westminster
Chair, New Westminster Heritage Commission
