COWESSESS FIRST NATION -- NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his wife Gurkiran Kaur Sidhu said a silent prayer Friday over the site of hundreds of unmarked graves on a grey and rainy day at the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan.

The couple, accompanied by Cowessess Chief Cadmus Delorme, walked along the hundreds of graves, each marked by a small white flag and solar-powered lights.

Sidhu knelt down and laid a bouquet of flowers.

The Cowessess First Nation announced in June a preliminary finding of 751 unmarked graves in a cemetery attached to the former Marieval Indian Residential School site, about 150 kilometres east of Regina.

Singh found it difficult to discuss what it felt like to visit the burial site, as his wife is pregnant with their first child, and teared up before answering.

"So of course it hit differently. It hit differently being a parent for sure," he said, choking back tears.

"I don't want it to be about me. That's the important thing. It's about Indigenous communities and what we've got to do for them. It's about what this means that a country killed its own people."

Singh said the prayer was more of a meditation for those who were buried at Cowessess.

"We were meditating on the fact that we are all one. We are all connected and justice against any one of us is injustice against all of us," he said.

"So seeing this injustice against Indigenous people we should feel it in our hearts as an injustice against all of us."

Singh repeated his calls for a special prosecutor and that all residential school records from institutions such as governments and churches be released.

Many of his pledges on Indigenous issues, such as ensuring access to clean drinking water for everyone, are similar to Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau's, but Singh says the difference is he will work on reconciliation as someone who has been treated as lesser because of how he looks.

"I believe in it and I know we can do it. I commit to this with every ounce of strength I have. I will fight for justice for Indigenous people because it is the simple, basic requirement of decency."

Delorme said he doesn't mind the federal leaders coming to see the grave site, pointing out Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole had already been there before the federal election campaign began.

"Many critics out there would say that they're photo ops and that they are here for political gain but to actually walk in our unmarked grave site, to come on to Cowessess … I do strongly believe Justin, Erin and Jagmeet will go back to their respected circles and understand they did learn something."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 20, 2021.