Our Work To Date

The Nisoonag (Three Canoes) Partnership is a collaboration between Mississauga First Nation, Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation, and Serpent River First Nation. This alliance was created to investigate and search for unmarked children’s graves at the former Spanish Indian Residential School sites.

The Nisoonag Partnership is committed to honouring the memory of the children who attended the Spanish IRS, bringing closure to affected families and communities, and ensuring that their stories are remembered and respected.

In 2024, the Nisoonag Partnership asked the Remembering Project to provide a French language interpreter to accompany survivors on a visit to the archives of the Jesuit Order in Montreal.

In 2025, the Nisoonag Partnership asked Remembering Project volunteers to transcribe handwritten archival documents created by the Jesuits who operated the boys’ school, and to translate any French-language materials.

They have also asked the Remembering Project to assemble binders of archival photos and records that could be shared with former students, and has invited the Remembering Project into technical training to expand the search for students that attended the two former schools.

The Survivor Council for St. Joseph’s Indian Residential School is housed in Fort Williams First Nation. They oversee the search to track down all students who attended St. Joseph's Residential School from 1870 to 1966.

In 2025, the Survivors’ Council invited the Remembering Project to transcribe a large handwritten register of all students who attended the school, which was maintained by the Sisters of St. Joseph.

Remembering Project volunteers have attended two meetings of survivors and we hope to continue to deepen our relationship and advance this work of healing and truth-finding.

The CSAA is a survivor-led, grassroots organization of students that attended Shingwauk Institute in Sault Ste Marie. Its mission is to support the well-being of former students of Shingwauk - and the sister school for girls known as Wawanosh - along with their families and communities.

In 2023 and 2024, at the request of the researchers supporting the CSAA, the Remembering Project reviewed publicly-available data on Ancestry.ca and Newspapers.com to help the CSAA assess which students may not have survived their time at the school. This contributed to narrowing down the number of students for whom the search continues.