SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Marie Speakman was nine or 10 years old when two strangers came to her house and took away her siblings - but to this day she can't remember it. The 57-year-old who was born in Deline says her mind blocked it out.
More than 100 people gathered for a march Sunday recognizing the victims and survivors of residential schools. They danced to a beat provided by the Dettah Drummers. - Evan Kiyoshi French/NNSL photo |
But one of her sisters has told her about how the children clung to their parents' clothing before they were taken away to the residential school in Inuvik.
"They cried all the way. All of my other siblings have gone to residential school. They were sent out of the community," said Speakman, adding she was also taken from the family home and put in a hostel in Deline.
Speakman joined around 100 people gathered at Somba K'e Civic Plaza on Sunday for a march as prelude to the release of a report six years and $60 million in the making, based on the testimony of around 7,000 people who experienced residential schools.
The findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's report - summarized in a release yesterday - includes evidence of brutal treatment of the 150,000 First Nations, Metis and Inuit children sent to the schools over the course of a century. The report states Canada pursued a policy of cultural genocide through residential schooling. More than 6,000 died during their stay.
Thousands took part in a reconciliation walk through the streets in Ottawa over the weekend and people in Yellowknife did the same.
An opening prayer song was provided by the Dettah Drummers and comments were made by Gail Cyr, executive director of the Native Women's Association of the NWT. Attendees marched behind RCMP escort vehicles to the Native Women's headquarters above the post office downtown.
Ndilo chief Ernest Betsina thanked elders and survivors for attending and told the crowd he experienced residential school as well.
"I went to Inuvik ... back in 1979 to (1982)," said Betsina. "So I know ... what they went through because I went through residential school myself. I am proud to be here this afternoon. Reconciliation is about telling others about their journey and learning from the past. And planning for the future. These experiences impact generations after the residential school was closed."
Speakman said gathering to mark the release of the report was an important part of the healing process.
"It's really important so people acknowledge what happened," she said.
She said it's difficult to relive the trauma her mind hasn't blocked out.
"You would get strapped," she said, clenching her fist in front of her. "I remember I couldn't even close my hands."
She said she witnessed physical and sexual abuse and was forced to watch while her younger sister was sexually assaulted.
"I stood there and I went blank," she said. "I went blank and I blocked it our for years and years and when it came back I had to deal with it."
Today, Speakman said she has learned forgiveness.
"I had to do work in forgiving," she said. "Forgiveness gives you the freedom ... instead of nursing my wound in a negative way, being bitter and hateful. I just look at the experience and learn from it."
She said knowing that so many children didn't survive the residential school system is difficult to fathom.
"If ... they took our children (today) there's a law there," she said. "It would be kidnapping."
Aboriginal children in the NWT were forced to attend the schools beginning in the 1870s. The last residential school in the territory closed in 1996. In 2000, the territory's first resident commissioner, Stuart Hodgson, who served from 1967 to 1979, was asked by Northern News Services if there was anything he felt was undone or could have been done better during his term. Hodgson answered with a comment about residential schools.
"We divided the children from their parents," he said. "After they came back ... they had nothing in common with their parents."
