Finding our Children

The oldest residential school in Canada opened its doors in 1831, and for the next 139 years saw countless Indigenous children walk through its doors.

 Many of those children would never leave. Today, their communities and families continue to search for answers to what happened within the walls of the Mohawk Institute Indian Residential School. 

The Survivors’ Secretariat was created to uncover the truth and to honour the children who were taken. The Secretariat has meticulously combed through government records and searched through vaults, accessing 50 of the 150 known archives. More than 37,000 documents have been recovered and over 6,200 children taken from more than 60 First Nations have been identified. However, the longevity of this work has led funding to run out. 100 archives remain untouched, along with 24.1 million documents. Without new support, this critical work has been forced to slow, leaving thousands of stories waiting in government vaults. 

The Indigenous Reconciliation Fund (IRF) is providing funding to help the Secretariat hire an Indigenous associate researcher. They will be responsible for cataloguing records and supporting the creation of a comprehensive database for the Six Nations of the Grand River. This position will also help build long-term research capacity within the community, ensuring that knowledge and expertise remain where they belong: with survivors and their families. 

This will allow the Secretariat to continue uncovering the truth of what happened to the children of the Mohawk Institute. These records are the evidence families need to begin to heal. By supporting this work, the IRF helps advance truth-telling and reconciliation, ensuring the memory of every child is honoured, and their names, lives and legacies are never forgotten.

Diocese of Hamilton