CANADA
Straight
by TRAVIS LUPICK on AUG 13, 2014
Gary Patsey’s Gitxsan First Nation name is Kaliskalan. Loosely translated, it means “last man up the river”, he told the Georgia Straight recently over coffee in Hazelton, in northwestern B.C.
In a separate interview, Dimdiigibuu, whose English name is Ardythe Wilson, told a story that revealed the path on which Patsey was set when he was given that title upon his birth.
“We’ve had a generation of people Gary’s age who have died,” Wilson began. “Most of his friends are gone. He struggles, almost alone, as a lone voice of his generation, calling out for some kind of recognition of the impacts of residential schools. And he’s doing that because that goes a long way in starting the healing process.”
Wilson, a program coordinator for the Gitxsan Child and Family Services Society, explained that First Nations people still feel the psychological trauma inflicted on them through Canada’s residential schools. The last such facility designed for assimilation, in Saskatchewan, closed in 1996, she said, and many former students died when they were still young. Depression, chronic alcoholism, drug abuse, suicide, and degenerative diseases remain common problems among survivors.
At the Historic B.C. Cafe, Patsey recalled years he spent trying to suppress memories of his time at a residential school outside Edmonton.
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