WARNING: This story contains harrowing details.
A foundation that offers college scholarships to Indigenous students across Canada has broken ties with a group of Victorian-based Catholic nuns by returning a $ 500,000 donation.
The Verna J. Kirkness Education Foundation announced this week that it had decided to return the endowment, received in December 2017, to the Sisters of St. Ann, a Catholic order whose nuns taught at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
Board chairman Tony Williams says the foundation began a year-long investigation into the Santa Anna sisters after the discovery of 215 unmarked suspicious graves near the residential school last May.
Williams says the foundation met with the Catholic group during the investigation and asked for details about the abuses that occurred at the residential school, but the request went unanswered.
“We want to know that there is a more complete recognition than these [residential] the schools were very bad places, which was done very badly here, many children who did not survive, there was no proper education, ”he said.
“It was to create a whole generation of Indians for failure and to be marginalized in society.”
Involvement of the Santa Anna sisters in residential school
The Sisters of St. Ann is an order of Catholic nuns founded in Quebec in 1850. In 1890, the nuns of the order began teaching at Kamloops Indian Residential School, one of more than 100 residential schools across Canada.
The children were removed from their families and were not allowed to speak their own language. Many suffered sexual, physical or psychological abuse, a situation described by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as cultural genocide.
During the opening prayer for the foundation’s announcement, Secwépemc senior Evelyn Camille said she had initially been excited to go to Kamloops Indian residential school at the age of six, but that the experience quickly became ugly.
“They used cattle trucks to take the students here,” Camille said. “When we walked in the door and into the bedroom, they stripped us and poured coal oil on us, because we were nasty savages.”
Secwépemc senior Evelyn Camille, pictured in a 2015 photo, says she and other children from the former Indian residential school in Kamloops were stripped naked and poured charcoal oil on them. (CBC)
The residential school was permanently closed in 1977. From 2008 to 2015, the Sisters of Santa Anna participated in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings on Indian residential schools.
The group, now made up of just 23 nuns, has been selling its assets and giving away millions of dollars for causes that align with its values.
Tough decision
Foundation board secretary DeDe DeRose says it was a difficult decision to sever ties with the nuns and return a generous gift, but the foundation does not want its integrity to be questioned due to a donation of a group that has historically been involved in cultural genocide. .
“Now we can say we no longer have that money, and we will work as hard as ever to ensure that Indigenous children continue to have the opportunities they deserve to be at least equal to all children in Canada and the opportunities to participate in post-secondary education. said DeRose.
The foundation, established in 2008 in Cochrane, Alta., Says its mission is to address the underrepresentation of First Nations, Métis and Inuit students in Canadian universities by offering scholarships to Indigenous students. It is associated with BC universities such as UBC, Kwantlen Polytechnic University and University of Victoria.
DeDe DeRose, Verna J. Kirkness Education Foundation board secretary, says the organization returns the endowment to avoid any doubt about its integrity. (Verna J. Kirkness Educational Foundation)
In an emailed statement to CBC News, the executive director of Sisters of St. Ann, Angela Hudson, says her group is saddened by the foundation’s decision to return the donation, which she says will be redirected to another organization that is also working to create a better future for Indigenous people. people.
Hudson says his group is committed delivering the records of the residential school at the Royal BC Museum as part of their reconciliation efforts.
“Reconciliation is achieved by humble listening and learning, and it is always our preference to engage constructively with our critics, while working together to achieve common goals,” he wrote.
Assistance is available to anyone affected by their experience in residential schools and to those triggered by the latest reports.
A national crisis line of Indian residential schools has been created to support alumni and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the national crisis line 24 hours a day: 1-866-925-4419.