Manitoba First Nation and Colombian researchers discuss 'forensics of care' in their work on unmarked graves

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

A southwestern Manitoba First Nation connected with visitors from Colombia this weekend to better inform its ongoing research into unmarked graves at a former residential school.

Sioux Valley Dakota Nation hosted delegates from the Committee for the Rights of the Victims of Bojayá on Saturday for an event at Brandon University called "Knowledge Exchange: Conversations about Community-Led Exhumations, Identification, and Final Burial in Bojayá, Colombia."

In May 2002, 102 people — including at least 48 children — were killed at the Apostle Catholic Church in Bojayá, Colombia. At the time, army officials said fighting broke out between the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and rival right-wing paramilitary groups. 

The church wasn't thought to have been intentionally targeted, as the fighters were using homemade mortars that were highly inaccurate.

The exchange with the visitors from the Bojayá committee, which works to identify unmarked graves from the massacre in Colombia, created an opportunity to share pain, healing and knowledge, said Sioux Valley Dakota Nation elder and residential school survivor Lorraine Pompana.

"This is so, so, so close to home for me as a survivor ... what we're trying to do to heal," she said. "I think we can go anywhere in the world and share this story because there are Indigenous peoples all over the world."

Sioux Valley, located about 50 kilometres west of Brandon, began its unmarked grave project more than a decade ago, and is working to identify children who died at the Brandon Residential School while it was in operation from 1895 to 1972 in southwestern Manitoba.

Pompana said they shared knowledge and culture to better inform how both groups identify unmarked graves while protecting their communities.

Committee member Leyner Palacios said through a translator that the killing of the Bojayá people forced mass burials in the community, which destroyed the traditional funeral rights of victims and caused deep pain for families.

He said that was difficult because the community wanted truth and to give those killed proper burial rituals. The situation was further complicated because Palacios said it often felt like the institutions that were supposed to help were lying to them.

This led to the creation of the Committee for the Rights of the Victims of Bojayá to ensure those killed were identified and given proper burials. The goal was to help families find the truth, justice and reconciliation after the massacre. 

In 2017, a community-led exhumation of the bodies began. Over two years, the committee and forensic experts identified as many people as possible, and gave them proper burial rituals as a form of healing for the community.

Pilar Riaño-Alcalá, who originally hails from Colombia but now teaches at the University of British Columbia on the issues of memory and violence, documented this journey.