I'm 34, grew up in S'olh Temexw (an area of lower mainland BC) and did learn about the local indigenous community. But more or less that the settlers and indigenous got along great and worked together to build our great society and shared feasts etc, and reserves were like their own towns that we shouldn't go into without permission similarly to how you don't go to other countries without permission.

We weren't taught ANY of the violent history and cultural genocide. Would be in my 20s before residential schools were becoming widely known about by people who cared to. My elementary school did a field trip to the Stó:lō Nation where we did activities like weaving, made bannock, and learned about totem and their traditional ceremonies... Maybe around 8 years old at the time. It's the only time in my education where indigenous people in Canada were a part of our studies of different cultures in history. Around 2017 I would learn that Stó:lō children had been abducted and made slaves to miners who came to the area for the gold rush.

This erasure of history is a disgrace. Even in my own family. A cousin of mine died and I wouldn't find out until a few years later. Usually a death in my family brings us together for a massive reunion that requires renting a sizeable venue.

Discovering this mass grave is no surprise.to me but how fucking shameful is that.