WARNING: This story contains disturbing details.
A foundation that provides university scholarships to Indigenous students across Canada has cut ties with a group of Victoria-based Catholic nuns, returning a $500,000 donation.
The Verna J. Kirkness Educational Foundation announced this week that it has decided to return the donation it received in December 2017 to the Sisters of St. Anne, a Catholic order whose nuns taught at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
Board Chair Tony Williams says the foundation has launched a year-long investigation into the Sisters of St. Anne following the discovery of 215 suspected unmarked graves near the dormitory last May.
Williams says the foundation met with the Catholic group during the investigation and asked for details about the abuse at the school, but the request went unanswered.
“We want to know that there is fuller confirmation that these [residential] the schools were very bad places, there was a lot of harm here, a lot of children who didn’t survive, there was no proper education,” he said.
“It was setting up a whole generation of indigenous people for failure and marginalization in society.”
Participation of the sisters of St. Anna at boarding school
The sisters of St. Anne is an order of Roman Catholic nuns founded in Quebec in 1850. In 1890, nuns from the order began teaching at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, one of over 100 boarding schools in Canada.
Children were taken from their families and not allowed to speak their own languages. Many were sexually, physically or psychologically abused, a situation described by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as cultural genocide.
During the opening prayer to announce the foundation, Secwépemc Elder Evelyn Camille said she was initially excited to go to the Kamloops Indian Dormitory at age six, but the experience quickly turned ugly.
“They used cattle trucks to bring the students here,” Camille said. “When we walked through the door and into the dorm, they stripped us and doused us in fuel oil – because we were fucking savages.”
Secwépemc elder Evelyn Camille, shown in a 2015 photo, says she and other children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School were stripped and doused in coal oil. (CBC)
The boarding school was closed for good in 1977. From 2008 to 2015, the Sisters of St. Anne participates in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings on Indian residential schools.
The group, which now consists of just 23 nuns, is selling its assets and giving away millions of dollars to causes that align with their values.
Hard decision
The secretary of the foundation’s board, DeDe DeRose, says it was a difficult decision to cut ties with the nuns and return a generous gift, but the foundation does not want its integrity to be called into question by a donation from a group that has historically been involved in cultural genocide.
“We can now say that we no longer have that money and we will work as hard as ever to ensure that Indigenous children continue to have the opportunities they deserve, at least to be equal to all children in Canada and opportunities to participate in post-secondary education,” DeRose said.
The foundation, established in 2008 in Cochrane, Alta., says its mission is to address the underrepresentation of First Nations, Métis and Inuit students at Canadian universities by providing scholarships to Indigenous students. It partners with universities in British Columbia, including UBC, Kwantlen Polytechnic University and the University of Victoria.
Verna Education Foundation Board Secretary J. Kirkness DeDe DeRose says the organization is returning the donation to avoid any questions about its integrity. (Verna J. Kirkness Educational Foundation)
In a statement emailed to CBC News, the executive director of the Sisters of St. Ann Angela Hudson says her group is saddened by the foundation’s decision to return the donation, which it says will be redirected to another organization that is also working to create a brighter future for Indigenous people.
Hudson says her group is committed turning in your school records at the Royal BC Museum as part of his reconciliation efforts.
“Reconciliation is achieved through listening and learning with humility, and we always prefer to engage constructively with our critics while working together toward common goals,” she wrote.
Support is available for anyone affected by their experience in the dorms, as well as those challenged by the latest reports.
A national Indian school crisis line has been set up to provide support for ex-students and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.
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