E5: Feeding the Dead
Kuper Island
CBC
4.8 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 13 June 2022
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
An archaeologist uses the stories of survivors and a ground-penetrating radar machine to pinpoint where children who died at the Kuper Island school were buried, sometimes in places where no one ever wanted them to be found. And we explore how the Hul'qumi'num people honour their ancestral dead, and why this work is important when it comes to unsettled spirits and unmarked graves. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/kuper-island-transcripts-listen-1.6622551
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Phalen Johnson. |
| 0:02.0 | And I'm Leah Simone Bowen, and we look at history a bit differently. |
| 0:06.0 | Have you ever wondered how hundreds of wild horses came to inhabit an island in the Atlantic Ocean? |
| 0:11.0 | Or what Lord of the Rings and a small town in Manitoba have in common? |
| 0:15.4 | Or the burning question, did Canada invent the teen drama? |
| 0:20.1 | The Secret Life of Canada is a podcast about the country you know and the stories you don't. |
| 0:24.3 | New episodes available now wherever you get CBC podcast. |
| 0:35.0 | Before we start, this is a podcast about Canada's Indian residential schools and it contains descriptions of sexual violence, suicide, and abuse. |
| 0:44.3 | If you need support you can find information about where to turn for help at |
| 0:48.0 | C.C. dot C.A. slash Keeper Island. |
| 0:58.0 | On a cool day last September, James and Tony Charlie gathered with their extended family, |
| 1:01.0 | brothers, sisters, children, grandchildren, to feed the dead. |
| 1:06.4 | They do this every four years or so. |
| 1:08.8 | It's a ritual the Hulkaminum have been practicing since time out of mind. |
| 1:13.0 | We call it a burning. |
| 1:15.0 | What happens is we look back in our history of our family |
| 1:20.0 | and we went back about who have passed on to the spirit world. |
| 1:23.0 | They were |
| 1:25.0 | we remember our family who have passed on to the spirit world. |
| 1:30.0 | They were next to the Penelope |
| 1:32.6 | under the towering cedar trees. |
| 1:34.8 | The ceremony lasted all day. |
... |
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