By Alex Boyd, Photo: Liam Richards/The Canadian Press, The Star, January 4, 2022
Visitors have come from Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba. A biker group cruised all the way from Edmonton. Grandmothers brought their own chairs so they could sit and stay awhile.
In the six months since Cowessess First Nation announced the discovery of 751 unmarked graves, the site has become an informal gathering place for community members and strangers alike who come to pay their respects to the people — many of them pupils of a former residential school — buried in a field in the Qu’Appelle Valley of southeastern Saskatchewan before their identities were lost to time.
But with the news of a landmark $40-billion federal settlement — which will compensate First Nation children and their families harmed by an underfunded children welfare system — Cowessess is hoping to become an example of how communities can take the child welfare system back.
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