Kamloops Indian Residential School survivor shows courage and resilience to resist – Castanet
Jan 5, 2026
Content warning: The following story contains difficult subject matter, including a residential school experience.
The first residential school in Canada, the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ont., opened in January 1831. After 165 years of operation, the Canadian Residential School System officially ended with the 1996 closure of the last federally-operated facility, located in Punnichy, Sask.
However, the effects of this system continue to be felt by its survivors and their descendants to this day.
Like Indigenous communities around the country, the Syilx people of the Okanagan Nation experienced the devastating impacts of the residential school system.
Most Syilx children attended either the Kamloops Residential School or the St. Eugene’s Residential School in Cranbrook.
Rosie Jack, born at Head of the
