So being deeply unfamiliar with the history of these Canadian residential schools, what is exactly being brought to attention here? I’ve seen cursory reporting on this, always in ominous terms. Is there any actual substance to allegations that these children were murdered or etc? Or is it more the case that they died of natural causes and were just buried in unmarked graves?
From the rhetoric in the thread, it sounds like the residential schools were awful. But it likewise sounds like people have known the specific ways in which they were awful for a very long time, even if it wasn’t “talked about a lot” in polite society. Is the discovery of the mass graves more seen as a good starting point for a larger dialogue about the schools? If that is the case, it makes sense to me the attention it is getting.
But if it’s just outrage at the mass graves, it seems like it may lack historic context. I think most people died and were buried in unmarked graves before modern times, and maybe even in present times outside of North America. I also do not believe it was ever common before modern times to ship bodies long distance at all. There are specific instances in which wealthier or figures of state had their bodies shipped, or the infamous stories of famous sea captains dying and being brought home inside a cask of liquor and such, but most people historically were buried very close to where they died. In some cases the family might erect a small memorial at home in remembrance of them.