National Coordination and Information

In June 2022, Kimberly Murray was appointed as the Independent Special Interlocutor for a two-year term by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. The Independent Special Interlocutor is to function independently and impartially, in a non-partisan and transparent manner, and to take part in conversations with Survivors, Indigenous families, and communities who are leading the Sacred work of recovering the missing children and unmarked burials. The Mandate involves speaking directly with those leading search and recovery work and with governments, churches and other individuals and organizations to help identify and remove existing barriers.

The Independent Special Interlocutor, over a two-year Mandate, hosted several National Gatherings. The purpose of the National Gatherings was to bring those leading search and recovery efforts together to discuss the challenges they are facing and to learn about promising practices that are emerging. Input on potential legal mechanisms to protect the burials sites and to identify the missing children is also received. They have been collecting and posting the reports generated and presentations from each gathering on their website, which are a great source of information and National-level discussion from various contexts.

• Investigation Status Map for Unmarked Burials Sites Associated with Residential Schools

  • Provides an overview of the status of investigation at Indian Residential School sites across Canada.

• Office of the Independent Special Interlocutor - Reports.

  • Summary reports generated by the Special Interlocutor during the two-year mandate, outlining what they have heard, seen, and witnessed throughout their discussions with Nations across Canada. 

  • The Final Report is now available, which summarizes everything that the Special Interlocutor learned during the two year mandate and lists 42 moral, legal, and ethical obligations that governments, churches, and other institutions have to support Indigenous-led search and recovery work.

• OSI Gathering Recordings and Summary Reports

  • Recordings of seven National Gatherings hosted by the OSI, including recorded presentations and resources covering a wide variety of topics related to investigations of unmarked burials and missing children in residential school landscapes meant to inform coordinators, experts, survivors, and community members.

The National Advisory Committee on Residential Schools Missing Children and Unmarked Burials was established to ensure Indigenous communities have access to independent, trusted and expert information in their efforts to identify, locate, and commemorate their missing children. They are guided by a Circle of Survivors, comprised of two First Nations Survivors, two Inuit Survivors, and two Métis Nation Survivors. The National Advisory Committee brings together individuals with a wide-range of experience and expertise in areas such as Indigenous laws and cultural protocols, forensics, archeology, archival research, criminal investigations, communication and working with Survivors.

They have a list of compiled resources on many different topics hosted on their website and have a contact form to connect any incoming inquiries from Nations to the appropriate subject matter expert. They also have provided a variety of recorded presentations on various subject matters relating to investigation in residential school landscapes provided by leading experts in their respective fields.

The NAC has also organized events such as the "Remembering the Children: A Community and Academic Research Gathering" to bring together researchers and community members together to discuss the challenges and successes of these investigations. As a result of this gathering, a series of Discussion Papers were published to outline particular challenges with the research, focusing on Pre-search, On the Ground Searches, and Post-Search topics. Find them here:

• RTC Discussion Paper 1: Pre-Search (PDF)

• RTC Discussion Paper 2: On the Ground Searches (PDF)

• RTC Discussion Paper 3: After Searches (PDF)