Photo taken on Aug. 10, 2021 shows a memorial at the site of the former St. Paul Indian Residential School in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Three British Columbia First Nations said they will work together to investigate the disappearance of indigenous children at the site of the former St. Paul's Indian Residential School in North Vancouver on Tuesday.(Phhoto: Xinhua)

A search began Tuesday for more unmarked graves of students at one of Canada's oldest and longest-running former indigenous residential schools, near Toronto.

The search at the former Mohawk Institute Residential School site in Brantford, Ontario is one of dozens that are ongoing or planned across Canada following the gruesome discoveries of more than 1,200 unmarked graves at former schools in British Columbia and Saskatchewan earlier in 2021.

A truth and reconciliation commission documented abuses at the schools and the deaths of more than 4,000 students mostly from malnutrition, disease and suicide - in a 2015 report calling it "cultural genocide."

"We're here to officially announce the first step to bring our children home," Chief Mark Hill of the Six Nations of the Grand River told a news conference.

Following months of planning, which included police training of local tribe members to use ground-penetrating radar to scan some 500 acres at the site, he said, "we have finally made it to this day where we are ready to begin the search."

"Survivors have been telling us for years the stories of what happened to them in the so-called schools. This investigation and the important work that comes with it is for survivors and is led by survivors," he said in a statement.

"For many, this day has been long awaited, but also brings with it a stark reminder of the atrocities that were committed against our people in these institutions."

The search and analysis of the results could take up to two years.

AFP