Grave Concerns (ep 269)

For Canadians, it was a revelation that seemingly came out of nowhere: the confirmation back in May of over 200 unmarked graves at Kamloops, BC, thought to be the remains of young people who decades ago attended one of Canada’s nearly 140 Indian Residential schools. Children who never got to go home to the families from whom they’d been forcibly removed. But if this first came to light late spring, why discuss it now? Because what began as some 200-odd graves has since multiplied to well over 1,000—with more, perhaps many more, expected. Many Canadians professed shock back in May. Has their concern grown in step with the number of confirmed dead? Has it translated into a substantively different approach to the urgent needs of Indigenous kids alive today? Why did it take literal radar to put these crimes on Canadians’ political radar?

Joining host/producer Rick Harp to discuss these questions and more are Kim TallBear, professor of Native Studies at the University of Alberta as well as Rogers Chair in Journalism at the University of King’s College Trina Roache.

// CREDITS: Our opening and closing theme is 'nesting' by birocratic.