Welcome to the Colette Podcast. My name is Claire Lehman and I am editor and chief of Colette.

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I'm Jonathan Kay.

Today we're going to be talking about the issue of unmarked graves at the site of former

Canadian residential schools. These are the infamous 19th and 20th century

institutions where indigenous students once were forced to live and study. And if you're

from Canada this subject will likely require little in the way of introduction.

It was something Canadians discussed intensely following the May 2021 announcement that the

location of 215 presumed graves had been identified with ground-penetrating radar in

Kim Loops British Columbia.

Rosanne Casimir, chief of the local First Nation, to Kamloops to Sequatmuc, said that knowledgekeepers within the community

had guided investigators to the area to be searched, which had once been an apple orchard

on the residential school's premises. The chief also said that knowledge

keepers had already told her that what lay below the surface was graves of children whose

deaths had previously been undocumented.

Following that announcement, several other First Nations announced their own discoveries,

and in December the Canadian press called the discovery of unmarked graves

the new story of the year. Now if you're not from Canada, it's hard to

...