Canada's Residential School Map

From the 19th Century until the end of the 20th Century Canada's Indian residential school system existed to separate Indigenous children from their families in order to remove them from the influence of their own culture and to 'assimilate' them into Canadian culture. The system existed for more than a century, during which time around 150,000 children were placed in residential schools nationally. The children were forced to convert to Christianity and were not allowed to speak or learn their own native languages.

CBC's Residential Schools map allows you to search for the residential school nearest to you. Enter a Canadian address into the map and it will show you the nearest residential school to that address and when the school was operational.

The last residential school was closed in 1996. However that doesn't mean things are now perfect for Indigenous people in Canada. From 2001 to 2015 the homicide rate for Indigenous women in Canada was nearly six times as high as the homicide rate for other women.

The Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) has published an interactive map of cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. The Safe Passage map includes over 300 locations where a missing Indigenous woman or girl was last seen or where remains have been found. The map is being used to collect data and help identify patterns of violence in geographic areas.

Individual cases are shown on the map using colored markers showing whether the case relates to a homicide, a missing person or a suspicious death. The map also includes a heat-map view showing where the number of cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls are most dense.