Film on Grollier Hall in works
Creator seeks support from community
Sarah Ladik
Northern News Services
Thursday, June 30, 2016
INUVIK
A new documentary film on the survivors of Grollier Hall residential school is seeking to give a voice to the wordless and heal old wounds.
Raymond Yakeleya says he wants his documentary film to be part of the healing process for the survivors of Grollier Hall residential school. - photo courtesy of Raymond Yakeleya
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"It's one of the dark moments in the history of the territory," said creator Raymond Yakeleya. "I think it's important for a lot of people to express their thoughts on this ... It is part of the healing process."
Grollier Hall was run by the Roman Catholic Church between 1959 and 1996, when it was responsible for the education of students from all over the Beaufort Delta and Mackenzie Delta region as well as parts of the Eastern Arctic. Grollier Hall was also the site of many sexual assaults, made infamous by the trials held in the early 2000s for several of the staff, who were eventually convicted of various sex-related crimes.
While still in production, Yakeleya's film seeks out the survivors of not only those halls, but also that trial, to help give them a voice. The creator said the film is also meant to bring to light the suicides of many of those men.
"A man from Sachs killed himself, who had been at Grollier, was buried in a corner of the cemetery, and the cross was stolen," said Yakeleya.
"There's a real stigma around it."
Yakeleya himself is a survivor of Grollier Hall, and while he was there around the same time that the most publicized assaults were taking place, he says he was never directly a victim of them.
"They were trying to express their sadness," he said of the men - including some of his friends - who had killed themselves in subsequent years. "And there was no one to talk to ... no one believed you."
While they are shooting now, Yakeleya said he and his team are in the process of securing funding to continue production this winter. Hopefully, he said, the film will be ready for viewing next summer. To that end, he approached Inuvik's town council, asking for $5,000 towards the project. Mayor Jim McDonald said council voted to deny that request June 8 because that kind of financial support is not in the municipality's mandate.
"We have no stance yet on the film project," McDonald told the Drum. "I'd like to look at it a little closer before making a decision."
Yakeleya said the film, which in itself is meant to be a piece of the healing process, could bring about other events. He suggested some of the survivors had been thinking about erecting a memorial.
"Maybe they could come together here for that," he said. "We're in our 50s, 60s, this could be one of the last times we could get together. We've got to put closure on this. We can't keep having this sadness."
