The trauma is still fresh for the Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc First Nations community, just weeks after the discovery of 215 unmarked children’s graves on their reserve, but that hasn’t stopped them from helping other communities in need.
Tk’emlúps, the First Nations government of Kamloops, in Canada’s British Columbia, is offering assistance to fire evacuees from Lytton and the surrounding areas, as wildfires force evacuations across the province.
It comes as the community remains in the midst of an investigation into the discovery of the remains of 215 children, who were students at the Kamloops Indian residential school, in late May. The school was in existence from 1890 to 1978, and was the largest in the Indian Affairs residential school system, which is believed to have been behind the deaths of thousands of children.