CABA-ACAB’s Standing Committee (previously Ad-Hoc Committee) on Residential School Graves was formed in 2021 in response to the Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation’s report on their ground search findings at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
The Standing Committee’s mission is to support Indigenous communities in their searches for and memorialization of missing children, namely through the creation of resources that detail biological anthropology best practices that may be relevant to these efforts.
Please do not hesitate to contact us with requests to create further resources that may be useful.
The CABA-ACAB Standing Committee on Residential School Graves has developed two key resources for Indigenous communities who would like to know more about biological anthropology considerations that may be relevant in their searches for missing children. These include the “What Comes Next” resource, and the “When Unmarked Graves are Found” resource.
“What Comes Next” is a compendium of answers to frequently asked questions surrounding biological anthropology terminology and techniques, while “When Unmarked Graves are Found” outlines potential options that communities may (or may not) wish to undertake when unmarked graves are known or detected. These resources are available below. Note that both resources are living documents, and will be developed and altered as required.
Should you have any questions about these resources, or suggestions for additional biological anthropology resources that may be helpful in this context, please do not hesitate to contact the Committee Co-Chairs using the e-mail address found under the “Standing Committee” tab of this page.
Click here to access the “What Comes Next” resource
Click here to access the “When Unmarked Graves are Found” resource
CABA-ACAB’s Standing Committee on Residential School Graves was established in 2021. It is currently Co-Chaired by Katherine Brent (MSc.), and Elisabeth Cuerrier-Richer (MSc., PhD). The Committee consists of regular members, non-signatory members, and status-only members, each of whom come from diverse backgrounds in biological anthropology, including bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology. Together, members of the Committee work to develop resources for Indigenous communities who seek further information surrounding how biological anthropology might be considered in the search for missing children in Indian Residential School contexts.
If you are a CABA-ACAB member who is interested in joining the CABA-ACAB Standing Committee on Residential School Graves, please submit a Statement of Interest to the Co-Chairs using the below contact information.
We welcome inquiries and requests for the development of new resources. Please do not hesitate to contact the Committee Co-Chairs at the following email address:
irs-unmarkedgraves@caba-acab.net
The CABA-ACAB Standing Committee on Residential School Graves has worked with a number of allied groups in creating resources to support searches for missing children in Residential School contexts. Some of these organizations’ resources can be found below by clicking the organization titles.
Canadian Archaeological Association: Resources for Indigenous Communities Considering Investigating Unmarked Graves
These resources, in both document and video form, detail a number of considerations for both planning investigations and employing remote sensing techniques (e.g. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)) in searches.
National Advisory Committee (NAC) on Residential Schools, Missing Children, and Unmarked Burials Resources
The NAC, a former organization of predominantly Indigenous subject matter experts and Survivors, has created and compiled a variety of important resources from various organizations covering topic areas such as searches and ground searches, community health and wellbeing, research and archives, training, forensics and identification, and protection and repatriation.
Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology (IPIA) Community Resources
The IPIA, an Indigenous-led Institute at the University of Alberta, has created a guide with recommendations for beginning the process of Residential School searches, and have also collected together a variety of resources concerning topics such as data sovereignty and heritage policy, archival research, remote sensing, and forensics.
If you are experiencing distress, please consider the following resources:
24/7 Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line (for Survivors & their families): 1-866-925-4419
Hope for Wellness (mental health support for Indigenous peoples of the land we call Canada): 1-800-721-0066 or http://www.hopeforwellness.ca/
Further information about these and other resources are available through the Indian Residential School Survivors’ Society (http://www.irsss.ca/)
