Shingwauk Alumni Association forms committee for Shingwauk burial site searches

The Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association posted the following statement on their Facebook page in regards to the establishment of a committee for the investigation into the Shingwauk Residential School burial site:

Since our June 1 announcement and Commitment to Action, we have established an official Shingwauk Site Project Management Committee. This committee is chaired and guided by the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association (CSAA). Other Committee members include Algoma University, Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig, Shingwauk Education Trust, the Anglican Diocese of Algoma, Métis Nation of Ontario, and the Algoma District School Board. We are committed to working closely with Batchawana and Garden River First Nations and the over 140 First Nations Communities sent to Shingwauk Indian Residential School. The Shingwauk Site is in reference to the full 90 acres that comprised the original Shingwauk Residential School site.

The Shingwauk Site Project Management Committee met for the first time to establish its guiding document identifying key priorities and collective responsibilities, and determined that ground penetrating radar technology is the least intrusive means in which to investigate the grounds. Under the direction of the committee, research is underway to secure services to begin the search of the grounds. Additionally, the committee will continue to work to establish a communications strategy to ensure survivor communities are informed and engaged in this process as it unfolds. The committee is aware that there are still many grieving families who want answers and every effort will be made to ensure we find answers for them to the extent possible.

The Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association are the survivors of the Shingwauk Residential School. Well into their senior years, they have worked tirelessly for more than four decades to ensure the stories of survivors were heard. Their work was instrumental in calling on the government of Canada to act in addressing the legacy of residential schools. They continue to lead in this work and have named their President Jay Jones of Walpole Island First Nation to lead the project team.

Jay Jones is a first generation survivor whose parents, Vernon and Susie Jones, were former children of the Shingwauk Residential School. He has three uncles that were also sent to the Shingwauk Indian Residential School (IRS). One died while at the school at the age of 15 and is buried at the Shingwauk cemetery, in what is now an unmarked grave. Jay is an intergenerational survivor; there are four generations on his father’s side and two generations on his mother’s side of the family of IRS survivors. He has been actively involved with the CSAA for over ten years. The CSAA is committed to ensuring this work is being carried out in a respectful and responsible manner, and that every measure to address the potential that there may be burial sites outside the marked gravesites of the Shingwauk Cemetery is taken.

We are aware that as independent work to search former residential school sites continues across the country, we will continue to see the enormity of the residential school system and the ongoing impact it continues to have on the lives of First Nation, Métis and Inuit people; particularly on the children and families. We have met with the Ministry of Indigenous Affairs to discuss this work in response to funding commitment to finding all residential school unmarked burial sites. We will be reaching out to the federal government to also seek their commitment and financial support to carry out this work.

As part of the overall community engagement, we will be contacting each survivor community to gather information to assist in the work of identifying the children of Shingwauk and to also ensure survivors are kept abreast of ongoing developments. This is the work to date. Regular updates will come to the surviving communities and to the general public.