For decades, former students of the Shubenacadie Residential School shared accounts of deaths and at least one burial at the facility
It is a moment that never left Isabelle Knockwood, an emotional recollection she shared with her nephew several years ago, as they came across each other by chance walking the former grounds of the residential school at Shubenacadie, N.S.
Isabelle, who died last year at 89, witnessed the scene in the 1940s, specifically recalling that she thought a boy was buried there, says Knockwood. “That year, they didn’t lose any girls, but they lost six or seven boys,” he recalls her saying. “When she told me that she was on the verge of crying. It brought up trauma for her. All I could do was hug her. Just hold onto her.”
In response to public outcry following the discovery, the federal government pledged $27 million to help communities with the effort. But some, like Sipekne’katik First Nation in central Nova Scotia, aren’t waiting around for the cash to start flowing. At the request of the community, two archeologists began searching the former grounds of the Shubenacadie school on a hot Saturday morning in early June, using magnetic surveying tools and ground-penetrating radar.
Members of the Sipekne’katik First Nation pay respects to survivors and victims of the residential school system in Shubenacadie, N.S. on July 1. From its founding in 1930, the school suffered from poor construction, poor maintenance and overcrowding, according toat University of Manitoba. In 1934, a federal inquiry was held into the flogging of 19 boys—beatings that a doctor testified left some children with permanent scars, but the inquiry judge, J.A. Audette, found the boys got what they deserved.
“I can remember them all turning their backs so my grandfather could walk out, carrying me,” Knockwood says. “If it wasn’t for them, I’d be dead.” “The nun was yelling ‘Swallow it, Nancy, swallow it.’ Nancy was trying to stop crying so she would be able to swallow, but she couldn’t. Wikew kept shovelling the food in her mouth and hitting her lips with the spoon. Blood and tears and mucus mixed with the greens and Wikew just kept shoving the food in Nancy’s mouth until her cheeks were bulging,” Isabelle wrote.finally took her by the hair and rubbed her face in her plate.
Nancy’s is one of the 16 recorded deaths at Shubenacadie Residential School, though Alan Knockwood says survivors and elders in the community have counted at least 138.former residential school sites in Western Canada, there’s no official cemetery associated with the Shubenacadie facility, says Jonathan Fowler, the Saint Mary’s University archeologist who is surveying the site.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
N.S. NDP promise to add 10 paid sick days to provincial Labour Standards CodeNova Scotia’s provincial election is on August 17
Read more »
Nova Scotia RCMP say one man dead after boat flipped in Cape BretonPassenger swam one kilometre to shore, while boat’s driver stayed; 24-year-old recovered, pronounced dead on scene
Read more »
As election looms, unity felt across Nova Scotia amid pandemic may be fadingOld regional and urban-rural divisions are beginning to show themselves again in Nova Scotia, as the provincial election nears
Read more »
Lawyer and residential school survivor Delia Opekokew fights for justice, reflects on her journeyDelia Opekokew, who was the first Indigenous women to be admitted to the bar in both Saskatchewan and Ontario, reflects on her journey as both an advocate for residential school survivors and a survivor herself.
Read more »
'This is about our children:' Ottawa march calls for independent investigation into residential schoolsNDP MPs Mumilaaq Qaqqaq and Charlie Angus organized the 'March for Truth and Justice' on Parliament Hill and in downtown Ottawa.
Read more »