Plaque(s)

Description of Historic Place

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The Former Kamloops Indian Residential School National Historic Site of Canada is located on the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc main reserve in Kamloops, British Columbia near the confluence of the North and South Thompson Rivers, in the shadow of Mounts Paul and Peter. The site includes four historic buildings dating from the 1920s to 1962 and landscape features such as a row of maple trees in front of the main building and the former orchard, which Survivors’ testimony has indicated contains unmarked burials. The Main Building is an imposing, two-and-a-half storey structure clad in red brick with granite details. It has a wide, E-shaped plan and symmetrical massing, with a central pavilion and two wings linked by one-storey corridors. The Gymnasium is a one-storey stucco building with a shingled mansard roof and red-brick buttresses that reference those on the Main Building. The Workshop Building is a one-storey, white wood structure with a main entrance on the west side and a hipped gable roof with exposed rafter tails. The Annex Building is a modern building with a long, asymmetrical two-storey main wing and a smaller, one-storey, L-shaped wing. Official recognition refers to the four buildings mentioned above on their footprint.

Heritage Value

The Former Kamloops Indian Residential School was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2024. It is recognized because:
• established in 1890 as the Kamloops Industrial School at Tk'emlúps in Secwepemcúl'ecw, the unceded ancestral territory of the Secwépemc, it operated until 1978 as part of the residential school system imposed on Indigenous Peoples by the Canadian government and Christian churches. As part of the government policy of forced assimilation, these institutions incarcerated Indigenous children, separating them from their families and communities to eradicate their cultures, spiritualities, languages, and traditions. Run by the Roman Catholic congregations of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Sisters of Saint Ann, the Kamloops Indian Residential School was the largest institution in a system designed to carry out what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada called cultural genocide and what many Survivors understand as genocide;

• children from over 90 communities and 20 Indigenous Nations were institutionalized there, arriving from across British Columbia and beyond. Before the late 1950s, residential schools operated on a half-day system in which children spent half of their time on religious practices and performing physical labour that contributed financially to the schools, and half of the day or less receiving basic and deficient academic instruction. The goal was to compel children into religious conversion and to create a working class of Indigenous labourers. Forcibly removed from their homes once attendance became mandatory in 1920, children experienced physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, forced labour, malnutrition, sub-par and overcrowded living conditions, high rates of infectious disease and death, and poor healthcare. The traumas experienced by Survivors have had profound, lifelong, and intergenerational consequences for the Secwépemc and other Indigenous Peoples that continue today;

• it is one of the few remaining residential school sites in Canada with such an extensive assemblage of extant buildings and landscapes. It bears witness in physical form to the experiences of generations of children who lived and died there, as well as to the broader history of the residential school system in all its phases. Its notable buildings are the Main Building (1923–29), Gymnasium (1938), Workshop (1942), and Annex (1962). Its significant landscape features include a row of maple trees in front of the Main Building and the former orchard, which Survivors’ testimony and archaeological methods have indicated contains unmarked burials;

• Tkemlúps te Secwépemc chose to preserve several of its buildings to commemorate and teach about the impacts of residential schools on children and families and for the reclamation of Secwépemc language and culture. In 1982, 17 communities of the Secwépemc Nation signed the Shuswap Declaration, agreeing to work together to preserve and promote the Secwépemc language, culture, and history. The declaration led to the establishment of the Secwepemc Cultural Education Society and the Secwépemc Museum & Heritage Park at the site. Tk¿emlúps te Secwépemc renamed the former residential school site the Chief Louis Centre in honour of the visionary leader who advocated for schooling that would benefit the Secwépemc people.

Source: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, December 2023.

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements contributing to the heritage value of this site include:
— the school’s location on its original lot in the shadows of Mounts Paul and Peter, facing the confluence of the North and South Thompson Rivers;
— the row of maple trees in front of the main building and the former orchard.

The Main Building with its:
— two-and-a-half storey, central pavilion clad in red brick with granite details;
— wide, E-shaped plan and symmetrical massing, with a central pavilion and two wings linked by one-storey corridors.
— L-shaped wings that mirror one another with gabled parapets on the furthest ends of the principal façade and high hip roofs with dormers, repetitive sash windows, and continuous trim above the basement.
— front-gabled entrance bay with decorative buttresses, a datestone, and a granite Tudor arch.
— layout of the basement, main, second, and third floors, with their long hallways and double-loaded corridors, reflecting the original layout of the building;
— original finishes such as painted, pressed-metal ceilings;
— the large, open, L-shaped former boys’ dormitories on the third floor, preserved in its original condition, with sloping ceilings and a series of inset dormer windows facing four directions.

The secondary buildings, including:
— The Gymnasium, with its stucco cladding, shingled mansard roof and red-brick buttresses that reference those of the Main Building;
— The Workshop Building, with its white wood siding, hipped gable roof with exposed rafter tails and shed dormers;
— The Annex Building, a modern building with a flat roof, a long, two-storey, asymmetrical main wing and a smaller, one-storey L-shaped wing.