The Owen Sound Sun Times e-edition

Education, healing part of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation events

ROB GOWAN

Of the dozens of children from Saugeen First Nation who attended residential schools, only five are alive today.

One of those is Shirley John, who on Friday during the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was busy talking about her own experiences as a way to both educate as many as possible and help others.

“I bring my teachings to other places and other nations so they can feel what went on and they can have that understanding that they also need,” John said after a ceremony at the Gichi-name Wiikwedong Reconciliation Garden at Kelso Beach at Nawash Park. “Everybody is at a place where they need to learn and they want to learn. “We need our ancestors' help, our Mother Earth's help and all of creation to help us walk through all of this.”

John arrived late to the Owen Sound event after taking part in a ceremony in Southampton, where residential school survivors and G.C Huston Public School students walked across the newly unveiled Truth and Reconciliation crosswalk outside the school, while the rest of the school followed.

“How awesome is it to recognize that peace, and to have on the sidewalk the seven feathers to represent the seven grandfathers' teachings,” John said. “It is all very touching and moving.”

John, who spent about a year at a residential school in Spanish in 1956, brought a teaching puzzle with her to the Owen Sound event on Friday, which she handed out to participants around the garden. Each piece of the puzzle had excerpts of what it was like as a child at a residential school. As John and Nadine Desjardins read out the experiences, the puzzle pieces were placed on the floor of the garden, forming the shape of a child.

As John and Desjardins talked, a hush came over the crowd and everyone listened to their stories. Some in the audience cried.

They started out talking about the joy they had at home with their families. But John said that happiness was shattered when they were taken from their homes, strapped into vehicles and driven away.

“There was no way out,” said John. “You just turned around and looked at your parents – your mom, your dad, your aunties, your uncles, whoever your caregiver may be.”

When they arrived at their destination they were yelled at, stripped of their clothing and had their hair cut short, with each given a number, no longer allowed to use their name or speak their language.

John said she was punished for everything, would be denied food and go to bed starving. She wasn't allowed to see her sister, and it was so cold they would freeze. Some would try to escape, but they were beaten for trying. Some would try to escape, but didn't survive, succumbing to the elements.

The longer they were there, the more of their traditional culture and language they would forget. If they were caught speaking their language they were punished. John described it as a “regimental life,” always in single file, always being watched.

“Being regimental from the time you wake up in the morning until the time you went to bed at night,” she said. “We never went out in the community. We just stayed in that compound. It was like being in jail, stuck.”

When they returned home, their families became total strangers to them and they felt like outsiders.

“I didn't know where I belonged because of how I was treated,” John said. “We were lost.”

John said that today, many still don't speak about their experiences at the residential schools, many because they have not yet forgiven themselves. But she said, forgiving oneself is vital, and she hopes her teachings help with that.

“It is long overdue that we are starting to talk about the residential schools,” she said. “I am there to plant the seeds and help them grow.”

John said she is grateful that society is now at a place where survivors can open up about their experiences. That awakening really happened with the discovery of the remains on the grounds of the former Kamloops Residential School in the spring of 2021. Thousands more unmarked graves have been found at other schools across the country since, and John expects more to come.

“We continue to work towards making a difference in this world for all people, our people, and all we can do is pray for my brothers and sisters that are suffering in this world,” John said. “I pray that they will find the healing that they need.”

About 250 people gathered at the event at Kelso Beach at Nawash Park for the ceremony. To open the event, everyone was taught how to say “Remember the Children” in Anishinaabe: Gimikwenimaanaanig binoojiinyag. The day also included a sacred fire and pipe ceremony, singing and drumming.

Attendees were invited to tie ribbons to a chain link fence nearby in honour of the children who died at the schools, while youth the Owen Sound and District Junior Optimist Club laid painted forget-menot stones in the riverbed beneath the Gichi Name (grandmother sturgeon) sculpture.

Bernice Ackermann of Owen Sound said she came to Friday's events looking for forgiveness for the way that the Indigenous people were treated in the past.

“I come to this place often to pray and say I am sorry,” Ackermann said. “It means a lot to me that there are ceremonies here now and they have made this beautiful garden for us and for reconciliation.”

Ackermann said there is still a long way to go towards reconciliation, but more can be done.

“There is a lot of support in Owen Sound particularly and we have learned a lot and we continue to learn and respect these people and ask for forgiveness,” Ackermann said.

Following the ceremony the fire remained lit for prayers and offerings of respect and remembrance.

Susan Staves Schank, a member of the Chippewas of Nawash at Neyaashiinigmiing and chair of the committee that oversaw the creation of the reconciliation garden, said it meant a lot to her to have the communities come together on Friday in the name of reconciliation.

She said seeing the gathering at the garden on Friday is what she envisioned when she started 12 years ago on the journey towards its creation.

“It was about trying to get different peoples together – inclusivity -- so that it could be used by anyone,” Staves Schank said. “It is a very spiritual place being part of the old Nawash village, plus the sturgeon used to come up both rivers from the bay and grandmother she holds all the teachings of the lakes and waters. It is a very spiritual place to be.”

Events were held across Greybruce on Friday to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, including those at Southampton as well as at Neyaashiinigmiing.

First established as an observance in 2013, the day was made a statutory holiday by the federal government in 2021 after hundreds of unmarked graves were revealed in the area of former residential schools. It was established following the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which heard stories between 2008 and 2015 from residential school survivors and others impacted. The commission released 94 calls to action, among them was the establishment of a federal day of commemoration.

The day is also the Indigenous-led Orange Shirt Day when people are encouraged to wear orange to symbolize “the stripping away of culture, freedom and self-esteem experienced by Indigenous children over generations.” The day is inspired by the accounts of Phyllis Jack Webstad, whose clothing was taken from her when she started at a residential school and never returned. One of the items was an orange shirt.

John said that, in the end, the events were about remembering the children who went to those residential schools and ensuring they are not forgotten.

“We are doing this because of the young ones, so they can learn and pass it on to their children and grandchildren and those ones yet to come,” she said. “That is why we are here today. To give you that message.”

FRONT PAGE

en-ca

2022-10-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-10-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://eeditionowensoundsuntimes.pressreader.com/article/281479280297446

Sun Media