The Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc say the search for truth and intergenerational healing continues for missing children and survivors at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, three years after the announcement of preliminary evidence suggesting around 200 sets of remains were buried on the former school grounds sparked a national movement.A hand-painted stone lies in the grass at a memorial outside the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, B.C., on June 1, 2023.
"No words are sufficient to express the comfort and love we wish to convey to you," she said. "We see you, we love you and we believe you." "The investigation continues to be carried out in compliance with Secwépemc laws, legal traditions, world views, values and protocols," said Casimir.Casimir says despite elders and survivors of KIRS having spoken about children dying and disappearing for years, the nation's difficult and emotional work has been met with scrutiny and skepticism.
"There have always been those who target Indigenous people in Canada, with systemic racism and white supremacy as foundational to Canada as the very federal laws that ripped our children away from home, in cattle trucks and police cars, to bring them to the residential schools." A cross with a child’s dress hanging on it is pictured along the highway outside the former Kamloops Indian Residential School at a growing memorial on June 4, 2021.