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The former Kamloops Indian Residential School has been designated a national historic site.
Tk’emlups te Secwepemc and Steven Guibeault, federal minister responsible for Parks Canada, announced the designation in a joint news release Wednesday. The band nominated the building to be named a historic site.
Kukpi7 Rosanne Casimir said in a statement the designation is “confirmation of our shared commitment and the hope for change.”
“The commemoration and designation of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School to a site of national historic significance reflects how arrangements made collaboratively will benefit all people, Indigenous and non-Indigenous,” she said.
“It will serve as a place that will contribute to greater understanding of Secwepemc history and traditional knowledge.”
Students came from all over
The former residential school was run by the Roman Catholic congregations of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Sisters of St. Ann.
“The Kamloops Indian Residential School was the largest institution in a system designed to carry out what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada described as cultural genocide,” the news release said.
The residential school system was part of a government policy of forced assimilation, intended to eradicate Indigenous culture, spirituality, language and traditions.
Children between four and 18 attended the Kamloops school, hailing from more than 100 communities and 38 Indigenous nations.
The statement said children were forcibly removed from their homes and experienced physical, emotional, spiritual and sexual abuse, forced labour, malnutrition, inadequate and overcrowded living conditions, poor healthcare, and high rates of infectious diseases and death.
'Forced to live there'
In 2021, ground-penetrating radar uncovered what are believed to be the remains of more than 200 children buried on the grounds of the former residential school.
“Today’s designation acknowledges the harms suffered by the survivors of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School who fought so long and so tirelessly to have their stories heard,” Guibeault said in a statement.
The federal minister said the historic site designation will “serve as a testament and memorial to the children who were forced to live there and who died there.”
“The legacy of their stories will resonate throughout future generations,” Guibeault said.
The news release said Tk’emlups members have chosen to preserve several of its buildings to teach about the impacts of residential schools, and to serve as a place for teaching Secwepemc language and culture.
