MINEGOZIIBE ANISHINABE –
Members of a western Manitoba First Nation were to gather this morning to start a critical month-long search in a good way.
Minegoziibe Anishinabe is to break ground this week where potential graves of children forced to attend residential school may be.
Spiritual advisers were to lead a pipe ceremony while a sacred fire was to be lit.
The sacred fire is expected to burn for the entirety of the excavation of an area under the church where 14 anomalies were detected using ground-penetrating radar last year.
Chief Derek Nepinak says he believes his community is one of the first in Canada to begin excavating after detecting potential unmarked graves at former residential school sites.
More than a dozen other First Nations have begun ground searches since 2021.
Nepinak says survivors expressed interest in digging up the area.
He hopes whatever the outcome may be, the search will provide his nation the opportunity to heal.
(The Canadian Press)
