Following the discovery of the remains of 215 children at the site of a former residential school in British Columbia, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak’s Grand Chief encourages Canadians to continue the conversation about the legacy of residential school.

In a press release, Garrison Settee says First Nations continue to feel the impacts of residential school within their own families and communities, and hopes the families who lost their children at the Kamloops Indian Residential School can find some closure and healing.

Settee adds Manitoba has its own dark past of burying children in unmarked graves at residential schools, citing the Turtle Crossing Campground in Brandon, where the Brandon Residential School was once located.

He goes on to state MKO will continue to honour residential school survivors and remember the children who lost their lives while attending those schools, and urges residents to keep learning about this part of Canadian history.