Catholic group seeks to sell land near Battleford Industrial school cemetery

Seventy-four bodies lie beneath the long grass covering the Battleford Industrial School cemetery.

Most are children who attended the residential school in the Battlefords from 1883 to 1914, and many of the graves are unmarked.

The site is controlled by a landowner who lives in another province, and the trail into the site is owned by local Oblates, laymen who live in the nearby Roman Catholic monastery as part of a religious community.

The Oblates, who are happy to allow groups of students and community members through, are selling their land.

"The land doesn't actually have the cemetery itself on it," said Benedict Feist, a local lawyer who is working with a group to increase access to the protected site. "In the future, allowing people to come up and learn about the history of residential schools in Saskatchewan and Canada is an important thing."

When visitors arrive at the cemetery now, they're greeted with a barbed-wire fence that makes it difficult for elders and people with disabilities to access.

The property landowner often but not always allows people on the land, but any increased access is progress, Feist said.

Letter-writing campaign

The small group of advocates, which includes lawyer Eleanor Sunchild of Poundmaker First Nation and local educator Sherron Burns, have drafted and sent letters to potential funding bodies, including the heads of the Anglican and Catholic churches in Canada, seeking to buy the Oblates' 32-hectare parcel of land.

Feist's group would ideally see the land gifted to Poundmaker or another nearby First Nation community.

"Whether we do that using the treaty land entitlement process, or the federal government decides to put up some money to fund this purchase, either one of those are options," said Feist.

Inching toward reconciliation

The cemetery site has changed hands several times since the Battleford Industrial School operated there.

The Anglicans opened and operated the school in the 1880s, burying children and staff in the cemetery throughout the years.

Eventually the Catholic Church obtained the land, which is now privately owned.

The First Nations communities whose ancestors are buried there now have to negotiate access to their ancestors' graves.

The cemetery was awarded a provincial heritage designation at the beginning of August, meaning the site is protected from future changes. 

Even with the provincial designation, the landowner can still post "no trespassing" signs and surround the property with fencing.

Feist hopes the landowner will consider selling the cemetery land once the Oblates have sold theirs.

Then education and exploration of the site can begin in earnest, under the guidance of the people who were there first.