LONDON, ONTARIO, July 22 – The Diocese of Huron supports the Six Nations of the Grand River Council and survivors in calling for a search of the grounds of the former Mohawk Institute, as part of a journey toward truth, justice, and healing.
We are committed to working with the Indigenous communities and to do everything in our power to identify the children in unmarked graves and to reveal the burial places of those yet unknown. In the words of our diocesan bishop, The Right Rev. Todd Townshend, “while we trust that these children are safe in the arms of the Creator, we also need to do all we can to bring them home to their families”.
Our diocesan archives have a large number of records related to the Mohawk Institute. Over the last decade, all of these records were carefully searched, they were digitized, and a digital copy sent to the Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in Winnipeg. Up until the beginning of the pandemic, our archives, located at Huron University College, were open, and the Mohawk Institute fonds were available to researchers. We hope that the protocol regarding the pandemic will soon permit the archives to reopen.
We express our deepest sorrow for the part that the church has played in the Residential School system. We are both obligated and devoted to continuing on the path the Anglican Church of Canada has taken by confessing its role in this sinful system – from the official apology made by the Church in 1993, to its response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in 2015, to the official apology in 2019 for spiritual harm done to the Indigenous peoples of this land.
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