Decades of Abuse Unfold

By Alex McCuaig
Medicine Hat News
October 8, 2013

http://medicinehatnews.com/news/local-news/2013/10/decades-of-abuse-unfold/

For generations, First Nations, Inuit and MŽtis children were subjected to emotional, physical and sexual assaults while attending Canada’s residential schools. Starting Wednesday, local survivors will get the opportunity to share their experiences as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission visits Lethbridge.

“They tried to protect me my sister and another girl three or four years older but they couldn’t protect me 24 hours a day,” said a local woman the News is identifying as “Gina.”

“But they couldn’t protect me at three or four o’clock in the morning. The nuns and the priests had the power to do whatever they wanted and they got away with it for years.”

Originally from the North West Territories, Gina says she was taken from her family when she was four years old and subjected to physical and sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic nuns and priests who ran the schools.

For eight years she was kept from her parents who lived and worked on a remote trap line, and was beaten when she spoke the Slavey language the only language she knew prior to spending most of the 1950s in the residential school system.

“We didn’t know how to speak English,” said Gina.

“They would hit us on the knuckles and elsewhere with a stick and I can remember them saying, ‘you’re stupid, you’re stupid.’”

Gina says many people don’t know or don’t believe “human beings could treat children the way the nuns and the priests did.”

Despite this, and through both Western psychological and traditional healing, Gina says she has learned to forgive.

“It didn’t happen overnight. I had to work at it for a few years,” she said, adding her father’s advice to her was, “you need to love your enemies the government, Catholic church, the priests and anybody that has done you wrong.

“You have to forgive them and forgive yourself or else you won’t be able to heal.”

However, Gina says many who went through the residential school system ended up committing suicide or became addicted to drugs and alcohol because of their experiences of abuse.

“They didn’t stand a chance,” said Gina, “I was made of tough stuff and survived.”

She says the public needs to know of what happened at residential schools in order to understand how the abuse which took place over decades continues to resonate today.

“It was too easy to sweep it under the carpet and not say too much,” said Gina.

“Will it go away? No, it needs to be known.”

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established as part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, with the hearing this week open to the public and to survivors and those affected by the residential schools’ legacy.

“It’s really an ideal opportunity to share your experiences for the future or the existing generations and also for the non-aboriginal population to know about what had happened in the residential schools,” said Jackie Red Crow, Blood Tribe Department of Health official.

Survivors will be able to make public or private statements about their experiences. If the survivor wishes, statements can be recorded and stored long-term at the University of Manitoba.

Red Crow said listening to people talk about their residential school experiences will help create awareness among Canadians.

“There is very little or no mention of the history of residential schools in our school curriculum,” Red Crow said. “It’s really a good opportunity for our survivors to share the truth.”

Theo Fleury is also expected to make a presentation Wednesday regarding his experience with abuse.

“In addition to the private and public statements there’ll be healing circles that will give anybody … an opportunity to share in a group their experiences and how they’re moving forward,” Red Crow said.

Contact: amccuaig@medicinehatnews.com