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In May of 2021,

in May of 2021,

archeologists discovered more than 200 unmarked graves at an indigenous residential

school in British Columbia, Canada.

It brought new attention to the dark history of systemic abuse faced by Canada's indigenous peoples.

Starting in the 1880s and for much of the 20th century,

more than 150,000 indigenous children were forcibly taken from their parents by the government

and sent to what were called residential schools in Canada.

These institutions were run both by the Catholic Church and Canadian government.

They were designed to assimilate and Christianize indigenous children by removing them from their

language and their culture.

The new documentary Sugar Cane and covers the history of one of those schools,

St Joseph's Mission near the Sugar Cane Reservation of Williams Lake in British Columbia.

Every principal from the time the place opened to when it closed all knew that this stuff was happening.

So all of those principles were involved in some way with the disappearance with the death with the babies being born. Did they think we'd be stupid all of our lives the rest of our lives, and nobody would ever find out these things.

I'm Jen White. You're listening to the What A Podcast, where we get to the heart of the story.

We speak to the film's directors about their experiences

after the break. Stay with us.

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