Scores of people are expected to participate in an assembly in Kamloops on Saturday afternoon honouring residential school survivors and the recent discovery of two burial sites.
Titled “For the Children,” the gathering is to take place at the former residential school in Kamloops at 1 p.m.
“This caravan is a direct response to the lack of justice in the face of recent discovery of the burial sites of 215 children at Kamloops Indian Residential School and 715 children at the Marieval Indian Residential School reported by the Cowessess First Nation, alongside many others nationwide,” read a media advisory from the Okanagan Nation Alliance.
“It gathers our people together in unity and support the survivors and each other through the emotional impacts of the recent findings.
“It also brings awareness to all those just now finding their relatives, alongside showing our support for and alliance with the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc.”
Regarding the discovery in Saskatchewan, Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Chief Cadmus Delorme said they cannot confirm all the unmarked graves contain children.
There are oral stories of adults being buried there as well. The residential school gravesite was run by the Roman Catholic church.
A caravan with First Nations residents from B.C.’s Southern Interior was to wind its way to Kamloops.
The caravan was slated to start in Penticton, then make stops in Westbank First Nation, Vernon and Westwold before reaching Kamloops.
“The reason we started in Penticton is that was a pick-up point for children back in the day, where they used to load them in the cattle truck and ship them off to Kamloops,” said Keith Crow, Chief of the Lower Similkameen Indian Band.
“This is the trail that we’re following. You think back . . . I couldn’t imagine, back in the day, what those parents were feeling like. But we didn’t have a choice.”
— With files from Kelly Skjerven
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