An Excavation

Children as young as three years old, Killed for not doing as they’re told, Forced to forget their culture bold, What a tragedy to unfold! Two hundred fifteen, that ain’t less, Young innocents abused, suppressed, How can humans be so heartless? It breaks my heart, I must confess, Wonder, how they would have pleaded? Their cries for mercy unheeded Residential schools, not needed, Were soon closed, but lives conceded, In the name of education, A way of ‘assimilation’, Native kids faced termination, What a gruesome excavation! 07.01.2021 {On 28 May, 2021, the bodies of 215 children were discovered in a burial site at the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School using new, ground-penetrating technology. The deaths are believed to be undocumented. The school, which was closed in the late 1970s, is located in Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation. First Nations refer to a section of indigenous inhabitants of Canada, along with Inuits and Métis people. Between 1831 and 1996, Canada’s residential school system forcibly separated more than 1.5 lakh First Nations children from their families in order to assimilate them into the Euro-Canadian and Christian ways of living. They were forbidden to acknowledge their indigenous heritage and culture or to speak their own languages. According to an information resource set up by the University of British Columbia, children were subjected to physical, sexual, emotional, and psychological abuse. In 2008, then Prime Minister Stephen Harper publicly issued an apology, on behalf of the Government of Canada, to all indigenous people acknowledging the country’s role in the residential school system.} For Edward Ibeh's "This or That, Vol 4" contest