Kinew sits with First Nations leaders to honour children at school burial site

BRANDON — Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew took part in a ceremony with Indigenous groups this morning at a campground located on a burial site for children who died at a residential school.

Kinew sat with First Nations leaders and elders in a teepee erected at the Turtle Crossing Campground, south of the former Brandon Indian Residential School in western Manitoba.

The ceremony comes on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and the day after the provincial government announced it partnered with the City of Brandon to purchase the private campground.

First Nations groups have long advocated for a search of the area to determine how many children were buried there and their identities.

Sioux Valley Dakota Nation Chief Jennifer Bone, who participated in Wednesday’s ceremony, said having access to the site is significant. “I think it’s a huge step in reconciliation,” she said.

“We spent so many years advocating to protect that site.”

Kinew says any decisions regarding the site will be done in consultation with residential school survivors, impacted First Nations and advocacy groups.

Sioux Valley elder Oswald McKay, who prayed at Wednesday’s ceremony, said it’s important to find out what happened at the site to find some closure. He said he prayed for all those still suffering the effects of residential schools.

“My prayers are for healing,” he said.

“We suffer by it. Intergenerational suffering is still going on. You still see it in the communities. You still see the young people, in the cities, you know, and that is the result of a direct result of taking language and culture away.”

The Sioux Valley Dakota Nation says more than 50 children are buried at the site.

A black, metal gate reading Brandon Residential School Cemetery sections off an area believed to the burial ground, and a sign says work continues to learn more about the site and the children buried there.

Kinew is expected to take part in an event later in the day unveiling a memorial honouring the children who attended the school.

Chief Bone said the monument will list all the students who went to the school as a way to commemorate what they went through.

The province has said the cemetery was used from 1985 to 1912.

Sioux Valley Dakota Nation previously worked with researchers to investigate unmarked graves at the site.

In 2001, the land was sold and developed as the campground.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 30, 2026.

Brittany Hobson, The Canadian Press