Survivors of Mohawk Institute trying to get documents, but say Ontario is being 'dismissive'

Imagine a community archive and database with the face and name of every child who attended the former Mohawk Institute residential school and what happened to them.

Imagine it also includes who worked at the institution, what entities kept it running and the policies and procedures in place as children faced abuse there.

The Survivors' Secretariat at Six Nations, a survivor-led group leading ground search efforts at the former residential school, is trying to make that a reality to leave a legacy behind for future generations — but its executive lead says the Archives of Ontario are being "dismissive" instead of helping.

"They're not making things easy for us. It's like a hurdle every step of the way," Kimberly Murray told CBC Hamilton.

She said the archives are not responding to messages, not offering descriptions about some documents they do have and are directing the secretariat to file freedom of information (FOI) requests.

FOI requests can be expensive and take years to process. The struggle to get documents could also impede the ground search as it could affect where the team searches, and how it searches, the secretariat says. And lack of documents could impede identifying any human remains.

The Archives of Ontario fall under the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services, which did not respond before publication.

Because of the residential school's history, Murray said accessing records is harder than usual.

The former Mohawk Institute opened in 1828 and closed in 1970.

Murray, former executive director of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, said it was the country's oldest and longest-running residential school.

Some 15,000 students from 20 First Nation communities were at the school. Many of them were abducted from their homes and abused there.

Records indicate there were 54 deaths at the residential school, but local police services said they didn't know where they were buried.

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The New England Company, which opened the school, may have its records on the institute in England or the U.S., Murray said.