BCMA Webinar – Residential School Response: How Museums and Archives Can Provide Support

MArch 15th 2023

12PM – 1PM PST

The Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation is supporting First Nations across BC as they lead the way to locate, document, and protect burial sites associated with former Indian Residential Schools and Indian Hospitals in BC. A key part of the investigative process is locating state and church records that may be relevant to this research. This includes information specific to burial sites as well as information that provides context for the day-to-day experiences of Indigenous children at these institutions.

This research, combined with the increasing interest among former students, their families, and their communities to find records for personal, historical, or other purposes, has resulted in an exponential increase in the volume and complexity of record access requests. With the goal of supporting connections between communities and local BC museums and archives, this session aims to provide an overview of the work currently happening across BC, discuss potential research barriers and challenges, and consider how BC archives and indigenous communities can work collaboratively to locate, access and transfer Residential School records.

Matthew Kinch works with the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation and is responsible as the Executive Director, Residential School Response. In this role, Matthew works with federal and provincial government partners to promote a coordinated and culturally safe response to findings at former Indian Residential Schools and Indian Hospitals throughout BC.