Religious orders to expand access to records on residential schools

Two Catholic religious orders are committing to make their historical records more accessible in the wake of the Kamloops Indian Residential School discovery.

The Sisters of St. Ann, one of the parties involved in operating Canadian residential schools, have reached an agreement that will see improved access to their records.

The order released a statement June 23 saying they have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Royal B.C. Museum that will “provide enhanced access” of their “private archival records” to the museum and to the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre at UBC.

“We affirm our commitment to collaborate in finding the truth and will assist in the process in whatever way we can,” said president Sister Marie Zarowny.

Museum board chair and acting CEO Daniel Muzyka called increasing Indigenous access to the records of the Sisters of St. Ann a “positive step” along the path of “truth-finding and reconciliation.”

Thanks to the agreement, the parties say the sisters’ records will be made accessible to the Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc Nation, which has requested them following the discovery of the remains of 215 bodies in an unmarked graveyard near the Kamloops Indian Residential School.

Members of the Sisters of St. Ann taught at a handful of residential schools, including in Kamloops from 1890 to 1970.

The memorandum of understanding comes into effect July 1.

The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, who provided administrators and teachers to the Kamloops residential school (and operated a total of 47 others), pledged in a June 24 statement to “disclose all historical documents maintained by us and in our possession, in accordance with all legislation, about our involvement.”

They said since the apology they gave the First Nations of Canada in 1991, the Oblates have tried to make their historical documents available, with some progress “complicated by issues of provincial and national privacy laws.”

They are seeking guidance from “expert organizations” to sort out what information they can release according to privacy laws and now are promising to do so swiftly, acknowledging delays in this process “can cause ongoing distrust, distress, and trauma to Indigenous peoples.”

The Archdiocese of Vancouver has said all records it holds regarding residential schools were submitted to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2013 and remain available for review. Archbishop J. Michael Miller repeated his commitment to transparency of records June 2.

More information about the archdiocese’s response and reconciliation efforts is at rcav.org/first-nations.