List of Names of Children Who Attended and Died at Canadian Residential Schools is Unveiled

2800 have been named while 1600 remain unnamed

Today, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation revealed the names of 2,800 children who died in residential schools. The ceremony was held at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que.

Idil Mussa, who works for the CBC, shared a video of the unveiling on her twitter.

When I watch this 50-metre-long cloth go by with the names of 2,800 children dead,  I get angry that so many lives were lost, that the cultural genocide almost succeeded. A total of 150,000 Indigenous children are thought to have spent at least some time in a residential school and the most accurate number of children identified by name and unnamed death records is 4,200.

The names on the list were carefully researched and confirmed and there are another 1,600 who died, but remain unnamed. Ry Moran, director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation says “Even our recent research efforts have uncovered another 400 students. We know there’s many more students to be found.”

What ages are the children on this list? “Infants, three-year-olds, four-year-olds all the way up through their teenage years. We’ve got some students on this list that are named as ‘babies'”, says Moran

The names are available in a book.

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Image: Idil Mussa/Twitter