In 2018, Penelakut Chief and Council and Elders' Committee met with researchers from the University of British Columbia to discuss possible identification of unmarked graves using GPR. This work would build on previous GPR surveys conducted in known cemeteries in the community.[22] On July 12, 2021, Chief Joan Brown of the Penelakut First Nation announced that at least 160 unmarked graves were located on the grounds of the former Kuper Island Indian Industrial school, off Vancouver Island.[23] The school, referred to as "Canada's Alcatraz", was operated on the remote Penelakut Island (formerly Kuper Island) from 1889 to 1969 by the Catholic Church, and from 1969 to 1975 by the federal government.[24]