The Chief of the Williams Lake First Nation says they are working closely with Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc on the next steps for its decision on whether or not to exhume the potential unmarked graves at the former St. Josephs Mission School.
Chief Willie Sellars says last week that 66 more “reflections,” indicating possible graves, were found during the second phase of work around the site of the former residential school, bringing the total to 159 suspected unmarked graves so far.
Sellars says they have started reaching out to the 47 nations impacted by the discovery.
“We are more than willing to sit down and discuss with any nation that is impacted and talk about the next steps and talk about inclusion and talk about working together on these things but we haven’t reached out with all 40 communities impacted, we are getting there though.”
However, Sellars adds there has been great dialogue going on between themselves, Tk’emlúps as well as the Cowessess First Nation.
“Every situation is just a little bit different. Our situation is different than let’s say Cowessess or KIB (Kamloops Indian Band) because the majority of the all of the land that the school and areas of interest sit on are private lands.”
Due to that, Sellars says Tk’emlúps has helped to identify best practices to address the barrier regarding private land moving forward.
“We’ve been working collaboratively with those private landowners looking forward into the crystal ball and how that relationship is going to go and we’re hopeful again that it will continue because that work does need to get done and then they understand that they’re holding us up and they’re standing with them on that stuff.”
He hopes that having these conversations with nations impacted, around determining best practices moving forward, will help streamline the process moving forward.
“The barriers that were harder to break down for those initial communities are going to get easier for communities that come behind and, and that’s understandable and important as we evolve through this.
Sellars says he would support excavating possible unmarked graves at the site of the former St. Joseph’s Mission residential school — if that’s what elders and the community decide is best.
He explains that making that decision will take time.
Sellars said the work that’s been done at the St. Joseph’s site is just “scratching the surface.” About 34 of the 782 hectares have so far been subjected to geophysical analysis.
-With Files from The Canadian Press