HISTORY – Residential school officially designated as a national historic site

Kamloops Indian Residential School buildings have been officially designation as a national historic site.

The announcement was made today (Feb. 12, 2025) by Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, responsible for Parks Canada, and Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc Chief Rosanne Casimir, with the stated purpose of the designation being to “commemorate and teach about the impacts of residential schools on children and families and to serve as a place for teaching Secwe̓pemc language and culture as an act of reclamation.”

Casimir said the former school “will serve as a place that will contribute to greater understanding of Secwe̓pemc history and traditional knowledge.”

The joint statement says “traumas experienced by survivors” of the school “have had profound, lifelong, and intergenerational consequences that continue today.”

The statement goes on to say, “Forcibly removed from their homes, these children experienced physical, emotional, spiritual and sexual abuse, forced labour, malnutrition, inadequate and overcrowded living conditions, poor healthcare, and high rates of infection diseases and death.”