The recent news of a mass grave of 215 children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School is a tragic reminder of what survivors and official reports have said for years – Canada carried out a policy of genocide against Indigenous peoples. The Point Ellice House board, staff, and volunteers extend our deepest sympathies to Indigenous communities across Canada who are grappling with the grief and trauma of this news.
There are still people who deny this history or who dismiss it as part of the distant past. But the last residential school closed in 1996 and colonization never ended – its destructive processes are here and now.
Point Ellice House is not isolated from these events. The people who lived here participated in and benefited from efforts to eliminate Indigenous peoples.
As stewards of a heritage site that previously obscured its connections to colonization, we take seriously the need to make this history visible. There can be no reconciliation without truth; we at Point Ellice House Museum and Gardens affirm our ongoing commitment to engage visitors with the site’s role in the history and legacy of colonization.
Read the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report (2015) by clicking here