A year of pain and healing since 751 unmarked graves announced at Cowessess First Nation
CBC
WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
A year has passed since Cowessess First Nation Chief Cadmus Delorme announced to Canada that 751 unmarked graves had been found at the site of the former Marieval Indian Residential School, about 140 kilometres east of Regina.
Media outlets from across the globe covered the story, featuring the First Nation in documentaries about the treatment of Indigenous communities and the legacy of residential schools.
Delorme said that the unmarked graves started the First Nation on a path toward healing as the wider world has been forced to accept a truth that the community already knew.
Oral history within the community said children and adults had been buried there.
"It's a validation. Validation of the pain, the frustration, the anger, the tiredness of just trying to remain Indigenous in a country that is still somewhat oppressive," he said in an interview this week.
The last year has been a tough journey for his nation, the chief said.
The Marieval Indian Residential School operated from 1899 to 1997.
For nearly a century, the Catholic Church operated the school, stripping children of their Indigenous heritage and identity while robbing them of their language and ability to pass knowledge through their family — something that Delorme calls the breaking of vertical lineage.
While he did not attend a residential school, his mother, grandmother and great-grandmother did.
In those generations, they were unable to receive traditional teachings. Instead they went into what he calls "survival mode" as they suffered abuse.
"I'm so honoured to share that my five-year-old daughter and my mom are really close again and so my vertical lineage is back," Delorme said.
While residential schools may have ended in Canada, their legacy and generational trauma has not.
That's why it is important for Canadians to accept the truth of what happened. Only then can reconciliation begin, he said.
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