askîhk Research Services

Askihk ᐊᐢᑭᕁ Research Services is the only full-service provider of Indian Residential School research in Canada. We offer advice on planning, funding applications, historical document searches, French translation, community engagement, survivor testimony recording, ground-penetrating radar surveys, soil spectroscopy, anomaly interpretation, mapping, community and media information strategies, and results reporting. We bring years of experience in all aspects of respectful research with Indian Residential School ( IRS) survivor communities. We have also worked closely with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC), the Office of the Special Interlocutor (OSI), National Advisory Committee on Residential School Missing Children and Unmarked Burials (NAC), and the Canadian Archaeological Association Working Group on Unmarked Graves (CAA WGUG). We are the first research team in the world to use the S4 Subterra soil spectroscopy probe to locate unmarked graves. This technology allows for minimally invasive means to confirm the presence of human burials. Other near-surface geophysical survey tools can indicate the likelihood of burials but can never offer 100% certainty. With soil spectroscopy, we can give survivor communities a complete sense of confidence in our results and simultaneously silence the growing voice of IRS denialists in the public.