Tsqelmucwílc: The Kamloops Indian Residential School―resistance and a Reckoning

In May 2021, the world was shocked by the news of the detection of 215 unmarked graves on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School (KIRS) in British Columbia, Canada. Ground-penetrating radar established the deaths of students as young as three in the infamous residential school system, where children were systematically removed from their families and brought to the schools. At these Christian-run and government-supported institutions, they were subjected to physical, mental and sexual abuse while their Indigenous languages and traditions were stifled and denounced. The egregious abuses suffered at residential schools everywhere created a multi-generational legacy of trauma for those who survived and, as the 2021 discoveries confirmed, death for too many. 'Tsquelmucw lc' (pronounced cha-CAL-mux-weel) is a Secwepemc phrase loosely translated as 'We return to being human again.' Tsqelmucw lc is the story of those who survived the Kamloops Indian Residential School,