Raymond Frogner says that when he found images of residential school students in the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate archives in Rome, he knew he was looking at something important.
“It had a very historic, very deep feel to it,” said the chief archivist of Winnipeg’s Center for Truth and Reconciliation in a recent interview with The Canadian Press.
Few archivists are able to dig into the private records of the religious order in the Italian city, Frogner said. But early last month he spent five days poring over the archives of the General Oblate House, where photos, personnel files and manuscripts describe the group’s actions around the world since its founding in 1816.
This legacy includes a significant presence in Canada.
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The Oblates operated 48 residential schools, including the Marieval Indian Residential School on the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan and the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, where the discovery of unmarked graves last year spurred calls for justice and transparency .
Frogner examined the archives of the former residence of an Italian nobleman. He worked in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary and a large fresco nearby depicted Jesus and the founder of the Oblates, Eugene de Mazenod.
But his interest was piqued by what was inside a set of metal drawers.
“The big find for me was in the photographs.”
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There were 20 photo drawers and three of them contained images of the order’s missions in Canada. Many represented children in residential schools in the early 20th century.
Frogner said he suspects there are as many as 1,000 photos that could be important to understanding what happened in Canada.
“Not to my surprise, the archivist of the archives had no idea of the significance of what they had,” he said.
The next step is to work quickly to digitize the photos, the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation and the Oblates said in a recent joint statement. The images must then be moved to central Manitoba.
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“The records we evaluated will help compile a more accurate timeline of Oblate members in residential schools across Canada,” Stephanie Scott, the center’s executive director, said in a statement.
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Frogner said the hope is to work with communities to identify the students in the photos.
“For us, as we go through records and try to discover the fate of children who have gone missing, these are photographs that could indicate at certain times where these children were,” he said.
Frogner brought with him a list of priests known to have committed crimes against children.
He checked the personnel files about the actions and locations of the priests. While none of those files contained information about crimes, Frogner said they showed priests moving places frequently, having difficulty working with children or advising a priest to marry and leave the order.
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“(The information) was worded in very vague terms.”
Frogner said he did not have enough time to fully analyze those records. After digitizing the images, expect to examine personnel documents more thoroughly.
The order’s longstanding practice is to keep personnel records sealed for 50 years after a member’s death. The order has said it is taking steps to speed up access to the files.
The order files currently in Canada likely contain more complete information, Frogner added.
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The Oblates have already provided the national center with more than 40,000 records and 10,000 more digitized.
The Royal British Columbia Museum received about 250 boxes of materials, a third of which relate to residential schools, from the Oblates as of 2019.
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There are also agreements between the Oblates and other archives to transfer relevant records.
Frogner said he knows his recent findings are of particular importance since Pope Francis visited Canada last week to apologize for the role members of the Roman Catholic Church played in residential schools.
During the papal visit, indigenous leaders urged the publication of all documents related to the institutions.
The Oblates have previously apologized for their involvement in the residential schools and for the harm they inflicted on indigenous peoples. The Rev. Ken Thorson of Ottawa-based IMO Lacombe Canada said in a press release that transparency is critical to truth and reconciliation efforts.
“While it has been a constructive year of partnership, I know these steps are only the beginning of an ongoing journey toward truth, justice, healing and reconciliation.”
© 2022 The Canadian Press