The Sisters of St. Ann’s archives on First Nations residential schools will be turned over to the Royal B.C. Museum in an agreement that will allow the museum to digitize boxes of paperwork and provide better access to survivors.
The announcement, made Wednesday, gives the museum “full responsibility” for the archives.
“We recognize access to archives is just a single step toward reconciliation and that reconciliation begins with truth,” Sister Marie Zarowny, president and board chair of the Sisters of St. Ann, said in a statement.
“Our hope is that the archive transfer and digitization will contribute toward a greater understanding of what took place in the residential school system, and of the harm and trauma students experienced,” she said.
“It is our belief that this transparent search for truth will lead the way toward restorative healing.”
The letter of agreement says the Sisters of St. Ann will fund an archivist to aid in the “transparent management” of the archives and notes that archivists at the Royal B.C. Museum are “highly experienced in navigating the provincial and federal privacy laws that govern access to the records.”
The agreement will help facilitate ongoing access to the records by residential school survivors, their families and Indigenous communities, the agreement said.
The Sisters of St. Ann have served the Pacific Northwest since 1858 and operated more than 30 schools and 10 hospitals in B.C., Yukon and Alaska. They also accepted teaching positions in schools for Indigenous children, some of which became residential schools, including those in Kamloops, Kuper Island, St. Mary’s in Mission and Lower Post in northern B.C.
The Sisters of St. Ann in British Columbia expressed their sorrow and regret in a 2009 statement that was re-issued at a Truth and Reconciliation national event in Vancouver in 2013.
“We now know that the residential school system itself, initiated by the federal government and in which we participated, was racist and discriminatory,” the statement read.
“It brought about a form of cultural oppression and personal shame that has had a lasting effect not only on those who attended the schools but also on subsequent generations. We carry immense sorrow for having contributed to this tragedy, a sorrow that stays within our hearts.”
The Catholic order provided all of its records related to residential schools to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2012. The records were later transferred to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.
Since last June, the Sisters of St. Ann have worked with the Royal B.C. Museum to provide access to the archives. The order said the new agreement is an important milestone toward the transfer of ownership of the Sisters’ archives to the museum.
Alicia Dubois, CEO of the Royal B.C. Museum, said access to comprehensive residential school records is essential to truth and reconciliation efforts.
“The expedited transfer and digitization of records held in the Sisters of Saint Ann archives is a positive step forward in this collective pursuit for justice,” she said in a statement.
Anyone looking to access records from the Sisters of St. Ann can contact the museum at [email protected].
