The residential school system was a Canadian government-sponsored system created and administered by various Christian churches between 1883 and 1996 with the intentions of assimilating Indigenous children to Western culture and expunging Indigenous cultures and languages. The schools forcibly separated children from their families and were designed to eliminate all aspects of Indigenous culture. The goal of the schools was to "kill the Indian in the child" and assimilate Indigenous children into dominant Western culture. The schools were underfunded and students did not receive the same education as the general population in the public school system. The schools were run by churches and the government, and Indigenous children were physically and sexually abused at the schools. Many children died and were buried unceremoniously and anonymously, often the victims of malnutrition, fire, or disease spread rapidly through overcrowding. The recent discoveries of more than 1,300 unmarked graves at the sites of four former residential schools in western Canada have shocked and horrified Canadians. The Canadian government issued a formal apology in Parliament for the damage done by the residential school system in 2008. The residential school system is viewed by much of the Canadian public as part of a distant past, disassociated from today’s events, but Indigenous communities still feel the impacts of these institutions in their everyday lives.