AUNDECK OMNI KANING—Any time you bring a group of residential school survivors together is fraught with challenges, especially if they are going to share their thoughts and experiences. So it was with Noojmowin Teg Health Centre’s Indian Residential School Conference held in Aundeck Omni Kaning recently.
A number of panel members and speakers were overcome in the final moments before attending the conference and deferred their arrival, but luckily, the roster for the conference was quite deep in any event and moved forward.
The conference began at 7 am with a sunrise ceremony at the Noojmowin Teg Healing Lodge and a sacred fire was kept burning there for the solace of the survivors throughout the conference.
Noojmowin Teg’s Executive Director Pam Williamson welcomed the attendees to the conference, noting that, but for a short decade’s interlude, she might well have found herself taken from her family and sent to a residential school. “I got to stay home with my parents,” she said. Ms. Williamson noted that “we are a combination of many things,” alluding to the different spiritualities in First Nations communities, but that “I hope that these next couple of days will be of benefit to you.”
Danielle Roy McDonald began the conference with a drum song honouring Anishinaabe-kwe, as the conference was taking place on International Womens’ Day. “I thought it was appropriate,” said Ms. Roy McDonald. The song can be found on her group’s CD ‘New Moon Medicine’ by the Odemin Kwe Singers. The second song she drummed also spoke of the challenges facing Anishinaabe-kwe and other Native women.
The conference was organized by Noojmowin Teg Health Centre’s Margaret Jackson and elder and residential school survivor Rosella Kinoshmeg and emceed by Barb Nolan, a familiar figure when it comes to residential school events on Manitoulin Island.
As is usually the case at residential school and reconciliation events, strong emotions can be triggered and the organizers made sure at the beginning that survivors knew that two Noojmowin Teg staffers were on hand to sit and talk with them should they feel the need. Barb Recollet and Margaret Jackson stood ready to provide assistance, as was AOK social worker Darren Madahbee.
The first speaker at the conference was Rosella Kinoshemeg, who related her experiences at the St. Joseph’s residential girls school in Spanish. She told of the good things that came from her education. “I learned to speak English in one year, I made lifelong friends and I got a good education,” she said. “We still spoke our language, but we just made sure we did it where we were not going to get caught.” Ms. Kinoshmeg went on to become a registered nurse and accomplished administrator, but there were plenty of bad memories associated with her time at the school. “Cod liver oil,” she said with a shiver. “I worked in the chicken coops and I still can’t eat chicken. Our older sisters were across the hall, but we couldn’t go over and talk to them.” That division set a barrier between her and her siblings that she never successfully crossed in future years.
Then there were the bells.
“Bells to line up for everything,” she said. “I still can’t stand lining up to a bell to this very day.”
Flutist Julian Nahwegahbow provided a soothing musical interlude between the keynote speakers.
Other speakers on the first day included panels with survivors, a presentation on elder safety by UCCM Police Service Constable Murray Still, Thai Chi with Wendy and an art demonstration by Brian Waboose. Isabelle Meawasige was on hand to provide energy massages and artist Mark Seabrook conducted art therapy sessions—making masks.
The second day also began with a sunrise ceremony and sacred fire, but the drum song was provided by the M’Chigeeng Language Immersion children.
Geriatrician Dr. Janet McLehaney gave a presentation on Alzheimer’s and dementia and Henry Burke and Pete Williamson stepped up with their fish skillet skills while Louis and Jett Francis provided a fire making demonstration.
Break music was provided by celloist Jonathan Poenn.
Brent St. Denis, former Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing MP and longtime Spanish resident, joined a panel to discuss his own experiences of the Garnier Residential School. Mr. St. Denis is a member of the Spanish Residential School legacy committee, although he downplays his role.
When Mr. St. Denis was a child growing up in Spanish, his elementary school was razed by fire. “The Jesuits changed the schedule at the Garnier School to accommodate us,” he recalled. “But if there was a theme to my talk,” he later explained, “it was that there were two solitudes there. We never got a chance to mix or mingle with the Anishinaabe students. The only time we would see them would be on the fire escapes during a fire drill. We didn’t play sports with them, our paths rarely crossed at the school.” The Native students would be in the classrooms in the morning while the non-Native students would take over in the afternoon. “We couldn’t see them, it was like they were invisible,” he said. “There was no attempt to have us play sports together. What a lost opportunity.”
It was a situation that would be totally unthinkable today, but was considered normal operating procedure at the time, he said. It seems completely counterintuitive to the stated goal of integration of Natives into mainstream society. “But that was how it was,” he said. “We were together, but apart. Two solitudes if you will.”
Mr. St. Denis said that because of this separation, his perspective was that of “an outsider looking in.” Not that he was completely cut off, however, thanks to his father’s grocery store and hiring some of the older students to work in it, he did make some lifelong friends from the school and later through his family.
“I got a really nice letter from Dr. Cecil King, who lives in Saskatchewan,” said Mr. St. Denis. “He had a lot of nice things to say about my father Frank.”
Other members of the panel with Mr. St. Denis included Dave and Val Lavallee and Courtney Kurek. Following lunch, Ms. Lavallee provided a session on grief and recovery. MichaelAnn MacLean gave a yoga demonstration and Barb Nolan provided a demonstration of language immersion techniques.
Planning committee members for the conference included Kim Genereux, Vikki Enosse, Tracy Tooley, Nelson Oshkawbisens, Courtney Kurek, Tammy McGuire, Wayne Trudeau, MichaelAnn McLean and Rob Wabegijig. Runner/volunteers were Kendra Peltier and Melissa Francis.
