Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife ( Jun 05/00) - "Oh, coming home, I feel your magic powers coming through, and in my heart I'm loving you, wanting to be near by you, coming home."

Those are words to a song expressing the hopes and dreams of residential school survivors who wish to be back home with their loved ones.

It was also the song sung by the Caregivers of the Western Arctic, as they prepared to march through the streets of Yellowknife to raise awareness of residential school abuses and the inter-generational problems that have resulted.

Members of the Caregivers of the Western Arctic are being trained to help people recover from the trauma and as one of the ways of dealing with residential school abuse in the territory.

Breaking the Silence is the name given to the June 1 demonstration, where about 40 people marched from Akaitcho Hall -- a former residential school -- to St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Parish, the Gold Range Hotel, the Holy Trinity Anglican Church, past the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs offices, to the legislative assembly.

"By breaking the silence, we are taking responsibility to use our power and to use our voice to speak out and acknowledge the hurt and pain, and to say no to abuse," said marcher Ann Firth-Jones from Hay River.

"Any form of abuse by anyone is wrong. By bringing awareness, we're asking the public to assist in our recovery and healing process."

"I would say my sense of the whole group feeling is of people who want to tell their story," said Leslie Williamson, who came up for the march from her home in Vernon, B.C., and is working with a trauma group for the Vuntut Gwich'in.

Williamson spoke of the stereotypes that the general public too often sees as typical of aboriginal people: drunk, homeless and destitute. She emphasized there are also aboriginal people who have lived through the residential school experience and have survived to lead relatively normal lives, and that it is their responsibility to help those who were not so fortunate.

"What they see is aboriginal people on the street, but we are also whole and well and wanting to help their (residential school survivors) journey of healing as opposed to feeling ashamed and alone in their pain," Williamson said.

"Our elders tells us that it takes seven generations (to heal) ... The last residential school closed in Saskatchewan in 1995, so we are still in our infancy stage of the healing process."

Bishop Christopher Williams, of the Anglican Church Diocese for the Western Arctic, attended the march and talked about the importance of the church getting involved in the healing process for residential school survivors.

"Our church has made healing and reconciliation part of our church nationally," Williams said.

"There is a particular need for healing and reconciliation arising from the residential school situations but then, there is a need for healing and reconciliation that arises from many other causes in the North."

Williams said that although the Anglican church is not involved in any litigation in the Northwest Territories, the mark of disparity arising from contact with western culture, particularly for the Inuit -- where the Anglican Church is predominant -- is still evident today.

"The Inuit have one of the highest teenage rates of suicide, and spousal, child and elder abuse is now coming to light in pretty much every community in the North," Williams said.

It was clear during the demonstration that not everyone understands the need for healing.

As the progression made its way through the city streets, a motorist going in the opposite direction honked his horn angrily as he tried to pass the throng of marchers.

"They have a right to their opinion," said Harold Cook, who works for a victims' advocacy group dealing with the upcoming second round of trials for supervisors at the now closed Grollier Hall residential school in Inuvik.

"They may have had a good experience, but I've had a bad experience," Cook added.