Summit of Indigenous leaders aims to remove barriers around searches at former residential schools
CTV
Indigenous leaders are meeting in downtown Vancouver this week for the third National Gathering on Missing Children and Unmarked Burials.
Indigenous leaders are meeting in downtown Vancouver this week for the third National Gathering on Missing Children and Unmarked Burials.
They’re working to remove barriers for communities trying to search for unmarked graves of former residential schools.
The gathering is being hosted by Kimberly R. Murray, who was appointed as Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools last June.
Her two-year mandate is to help create a new federal legal framework to ensure the respectful and culturally appropriate treatment of unmarked graves from former residential schools.
She’ll then send recommendations to the federal minister of justice and the attorney general of Canada.
The gathering will give leaders the opportunity to discuss the barriers those leading searches at former residential schools are facing.
It will also provide a platform for communities to collaborate and find creative solutions that survivors and Indigenous families have put in place to access records.
