One local Indigenous organization representative says the news of the B.C. mass grave of 215 First Nations children is tragic but a fact known all along by the First Peoples of Turtle Island.
"I already knew; we've known this," said Donna Dubie, executive director, The Healing of the Seven Generations First Peoples, Kitchener.
The 64 years old said she has lived with stories from residential schools every single day of her life.
"My father was at the Mush Hole in Brantford for nine years," said Dubie.
One of the stories she says her father shared over and over again was of a group of nine to 12-year-old First Nations boys that was tasked with disposing of the babies born to young girls, who ended up impregnated by staff.
"(They) were given the task of taking that baby and putting it in the furnace downstairs," Dubie said. "That's a story I had to hear from my father over and over and over. It was that devastating to him that he could never forget that."
Because of his time spent away from family and at the residential school, she said, "he raised his children the same way he was raised in residential schools. We grew up that same way – it wasn't good. Everything they taught him in residential schools was everything he did to his own family because that's how he thought it was supposed to be at a parent. At the end of every single abuse that they ever put onto him, they told him that they loved him. We're doing this because we love you. So that's what he associated with love: horrendous abuse."
Dubie, who is Mohawk of Six Nations Territory of the Grand River and is Turtle Clan, said she found healing in the traditional teachings of her peoples.
But, she said, it's devastating hear comments from people, communities and different levels of government that say, "Why don't we just get over it?"
How can we get over it when there are still outstanding issues that the various levels of government need to address? Dubie asked.
"Would they say that to the Jewish community? Would they say they to the Jewish people? No," she added. "They find it very disrespectful. But because we're the First Peoples of this territory, if they account for anything it might mean they lose something. They would have to give up ownership of something."
Moreover, Dubie said, now that there's evidence, everybody is sorry.
"They weren't sorry a week ago or a month ago or a year ago. But they're sorry today because now there's evidence?" she said. "It kind of angers me. It's very hurtful. We do everything in our power to help our community members move past tragedy of the residential schools and the '60s and '70s Scoop. That's why there's dysfunction in our community because of that. But every single day continues the suffering."
Recognizing the tragic aspect of the news, Dubie said, she's glad the information is coming out in the open.
"There are a 133 residential schools across Canada," she said. "If there was 215 and/or more students that they have found bodies of at each one of those residential schools, that's pretty tragic.
"It has to be documented; it has to be talked about," Dubie said. "There has to be action to make sure this doesn't happen again."
Some immediate action that communities in the Region of Waterloo are taking is by organizing a vigil for the children.
"Like any other vigil, they bring awareness and education and it's also a place where our people can grieve," Dubie said.
Teddy bears and shoes line the pathway and steps at centre's Kitchener location on Monday. The centre serves up to 45,000 Indigenous First Nations, Inuit in Métis people in the region, she said.
For Dubie, she said, it's only First Nations people that are going to be able to help heal each other.
"Because we all know what we have gone through," she said. "I can sit across another First Nations person and say something about any one of the tragedies from my past ... they know what I'm feeling because they've felt it themselves."
But, Dubie added, non-Indigenous people can also help with the healing by recognizing that Indigenous communities are the First Peoples of Turtle Island.
"We are the original people of Turtle Island," she said. "We don't need to be the highest population of incarcerated people. We don't have to be the highest nation of people that are suffering from different health elements and not getting the proper care. We don't have to be the people who don't have clean water. We need the opportunity of the education that we were promised. That doesn't happen."
Area municipalities have also announced they will be lowering their flags to honour the lives lost.
Dubie said would like a more proactive approach.
"I would really like the various different levels of government to reach out to the community and have a conversation and ask how they can make things better today," she said.
When reached for comment, Cambridge Deputy Mayor Mike Mann, said he feels the sorrow.
"It's so unbelievable that this has happened," he added. "I'm still to get my head around that. There's sorrow, disbelief and anger that this could happen."
However, Mann said, he would need to time to fully respond to the question, "What can the City of Cambridge do for its Indigenous people?"
Later, a written statement by Mayor Kathryn McGarry and Mann was emailed to CambridgeToday.
"Learning and speaking the truth is the first step toward truth and reconciliation," read the email. "Collectively, we all must learn about and acknowledge these atrocities, which have been hidden for far too many years. While residential schools are now in the past, it’s not a distant past and the effects will be felt for generations to come."
The emailed correspondence also acknowledged that these are not the only children lost.
"Today, we lowered our flags for these 215 children," the email read. "People are invited to place shoes at a now growing memorial in Civic Square. The Cambridge sign will be lit orange to send a strong message that every child matters."
The written statement also recognized "the painful truth is that the residential school system was part of an intentional genocide against First Nations people."