An Innu community has obtained federal funds to finance ground-penetrating radar searches around the Maliotenam boarding school, near Sept-Îles, like those that helped locate 215 unmarked graves in Kamloops last year.
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Uashat mak Mani-Utenam, on the North Shore, is one of 34 Aboriginal communities in Canada that will share $46.2 million under a federal program designed to facilitate the search for missing children in residential schools.
The funds will be used, among other things, to finance consultations with ex-residents and research with a georadar on the site of the Maliotenam boarding school, says Jean-Claude Therrien-Pinette, head of the political cabinet of Uashat mak Mani-Utenam.
“First, we will map and target locations with survivors. Thereafter, we will carry out the research according to their indications, ”he explains.
It was in doing so that 215 unmarked graves were spotted on the grounds of a boarding school in British Columbia last May, sending shock waves across the country.
Indigenous Services Canada adds that the funding also includes “professional archaeological research services” to delineate burial sites and the organization of activities to commemorate and bring home the remains of missing children.
Memories still vivid
Several former students of the Catholic boarding school in operation from 1952 to 1971 are still alive, which could facilitate excavations.
Photo Library and Archives Canada/Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development fonds/ e011311462
Children and nuns in front of the boarding school.
Part of the money will also be used to hire kubaniesh, “companions”.
These ex-residents accustomed to working in a helping relationship will conduct interviews with their former classmates to narrow down the research.
“The territory around the boarding school is large, there is forest around it, a cemetery nearby…Are there any witnesses who heard something, who think someone has disappeared?” , asks Mr. Therrien-Pinette.
Given the deep trauma of several ex-residents, he assures that the interviews will be done in “the greatest benevolence and support”.
“We know that the memory exercise that we ask of survivors is painful… There are people who have spent their lives trying to forget this period of their life,” he drops.
The former boarders consulted will come from two nations (Innu and Abenaki) and 11 communities.
They will also be asked how they would like to maintain the memory on the site of the boarding school, most of whose buildings have been destroyed since its closure.
How many?
Moreover, the number of disappearances in Maliotenam is difficult to assess since the community does not have access to the list of all the children — between 200 and 300 per year — who attended the boarding school.
At least one little girl named Merilda Napess died there in 1956, according to the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation.
In any case, “if we want to turn the page collectively and individually, we will have to highlight what really happened,” believes Mr. Therrien-Pinette.
The federal government is examining the grant application from two other communities or Aboriginal organizations based in Quebec, but did not want to specify which ones.
Survivors hesitate
In Chisasibi, as in several other communities, the idea of carrying out ground-penetrating radar searches is far from unanimous among the survivors.
Since November, the community has held several heartbreaking consultations with ex-residents, who hail from as far away as Ontario.
“It’s a long process, we wouldn’t want to rush anything,” says Paula Napash, vice-chief of Chisasibi, in Nord-du-Québec.
“Those who are against [l’idée] say “it’s the past, let’s leave it alone”, while those who are in favor think that it will help them to grieve”, she notes.
Should the survivors decide to go ahead with ground penetrating radar searches, they would nonetheless be complex.
Chisasibi (formerly Fort George) had two residential schools in five different locations, some of which are now covered in debris or on rough terrain.