Survivor wonders if 'plausible burials' at former Kenora residential school might include her relatives

WARNING: This story contains distressing details. 

Residential school survivor Vivian Ketchum's heart is heavy as she spreads out family photos and other mementos on a coffee table at home in Winnipeg on Wednesday.

Some pictures show her aunties and late mother, maiden name Mae Henry, who attended St. Mary's Indian Residential School in Kenora, Ont., said Ketchum.

On Tuesday, their home community of Wauzhushk Onigum Nation in northwestern Ontario confirmed evidence of 170 "plausible burials" at the former residential school site, following a round of ground-penetrating radar that detected the anomalies.

"I am just thinking ... are any of my relatives any of those?" Ketchum said. "My relatives, friends of my mom could be in there, and my community is hurting."

The findings had Ketchum reflecting on when she traveled to B.C. in 2021 to stand alongside community leaders and other survivors when as many as 215 potential burial sites were detected with radar at a former residential school. That was the catalyst to other First Nations subsequently performing similar sweeps across Canada.

Ketchum said she didn't expect her home community to be making similar findings.

"It's been very disheartening," said Wauzhushk Onigum Chief Chris Skead during a visit to Winnipeg on Wednesday. "It's very difficult, but that's part of uncovering the truth."

The search began in May of last year. It was driven by stories of abuse from elders who went to the school, he said.

"Some of those stories are really difficult even to fathom," said Skead. "All of those traumas."

Ketchum said she and her father, Andrew Ketchum, attended Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School, also once in Kenora.

At the age of 14, her mother was sent to St. Mary's, which was operated by the Roman Catholic Church between 1897 and 1972.

Years later, in her 60s, she told Ketchum what she could about the experience, how nuns cut her hair when she arrived and stripped her of her identity. 

"She couldn't tell me any more. She put her head down.... I could see the tears in her eyes."