One of Library and Archives Canada’s largest digitization project is coming to a close after roughly processing 6 million federal Indian day School records spread throughout 700 day schools.
The project began in 2022 with a budget of $25 million and is expected to be completed by March of 2026. The goal in digitizing the records was to increase the discoverability of archival documents related to federal Indian day school system and their legacy.
It is estimated that around 200,000 pupils had attended federal day schools operating between 1860s and 2000s.
Digitizing these records allows them to be more easily discoverable using keyword options and enhanced description of what’s in the files. This can help navigate these records which often have multiple misspellings which makes it harder the parse through.
Survivors like Jessie Waldron and Lorenzo Whetung highlight that these records are vital for finding lost classmates, understanding the history of Indigenous people, and educating future generations through school curriculums.
However, experts like Professor Jackson Pind raises an important point. While it is true that easier access is a step forward, the digitization is very much deemed "too late" because the deadline for settlement claims has already passed. These records could have provided the proof needed for Survivors to receive higher compensation. The professor also believes that these records should be returned to Indigenous nations rather than being managed by the federal government, so that the community can write their own history and gain data sovereignty.
Most of these documents remain restricted by federal privacy laws, meaning Survivors must still navigate a formal Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) request to see their own history. As Pind notes, these records tell a persistent story of systemic underfunding: “When we talk about truth and reconciliation, we're still really in the truth.”
