Ottawa and Indigenous communities across Canada are taking notice of a landmark new archival effort — one that could preserve some of the most important firsthand accounts of abuse at residential schools before they disappear forever.
Award-winning journalist Connie Walker, known for her groundbreaking investigative podcast work on missing and murdered Indigenous women, is spearheading a project to create a comprehensive archive of survivor testimonies. The urgency is real: many of these accounts are slated to be destroyed in September 2027.
A Race Against the Clock
The destruction deadline has galvanized Indigenous communities, historians, and journalists alike. Once those records are gone, a critical piece of Canada's history — told in survivors' own voices — will be lost permanently. Walker's project, based out of Toronto Metropolitan University, aims to collect and preserve as many testimonies as possible before that window closes.
For Ottawa residents, the stakes are deeply personal. The National Capital Region has long been a centre of Indigenous advocacy and policy, home to organizations that have fought for decades to see the full truth of the residential school system acknowledged and documented. Survivors and their families from communities across the Ottawa Valley and beyond have lived with these stories for generations.
Why Preservation Matters
The residential school system, which operated in Canada for over a century, forcibly separated Indigenous children from their families. Abuse — physical, emotional, cultural, and sexual — was widespread. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission documented thousands of testimonies, but Walker's project recognizes that the full picture is far larger than any single inquiry could capture.
Archiving these accounts is not just a matter of historical record. It is an act of recognition — of honouring survivors who came forward at enormous personal cost to share what happened to them. Losing those records to a bureaucratic deadline would be, advocates say, a second erasure.
Connie Walker's Track Record
Walker is no stranger to this kind of painstaking, essential work. Her podcast Stolen and her reporting for outlets including CBC have earned international recognition for humanizing stories that mainstream media has historically overlooked. Her decision to anchor this archival project at a Canadian university signals a commitment to keeping it accessible and permanent.
The project is expected to involve interviews, digitization of existing materials, and collaboration with Indigenous communities to ensure the archive is built with care and cultural sensitivity — not just collected, but properly held.
What Comes Next
Details on how communities and survivors can participate in Walker's archive are expected to emerge as the project develops through TMU. With just over a year before the 2027 destruction deadline, the timeline is tight.
For Ottawa's Indigenous community organizations and allies, this is a moment to pay attention — and to act. The stories these survivors have shared deserve to outlast any administrative deadline.
Source: CBC Ottawa
