Saturday, June 16, 2001
RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL
There was a time, not very long ago, when our people were forced to go to residential schools.
This period of time was in the mid to late 1900s. It had devastating affects on the Anishinabe.
Yes, it is a good thing to report that people received an education. A education that would open doors for other areas.
It is the stories that emerged from within the walls of this institutions that I will speak of today.
Personally, I never attended this system. I am the first generation that was FREE from that era. I speak about this because, even though I never stepped foot into these schools during my life, my life has been severely affected by the system. It is labelled 'inter-generational effects of the residential school system'.
Many of my older relatives had been ripped from their families as children and forced by Canadian Indian Policy to attend these schools. They received their education as non-indians. They were beaten if they spoke their aboriginal language, their hair was cut if it was long and in braids, they grew up without basic family, extended family and community structures and values, therefore taught to become dysfunctional.
Today, there are lawsuits against the churches and government agencies that ran these schools. Most of these lawsuits revolve around the issue of 'sexual abuse'. It was pretty common practice for the nuns and the missionaries to sexually abuse Native American children. This is a obvious embarassment for the Government of Canada and the Churches of this day.
The Federal Government of Canada and the Churches of Canada had planted a bad seed into the minds of the people. They will continue to see a sick people for some time.
As we are taught, life is a circle, what is put into this circle, it comes back around. The abuses that many of my relatives and people have received would be entered into our circle of life. So it is also with the churches and governments, they are now paying and will continue to pay for their actions.
These children grew up without the Anishinabe traditions and culture. They grew up and were returned to their communities and set free.
One problem: They were a people with fractured culture and aboriginal language, they were beaten, abused and many hated themselves. This mentality was born into the native communties. These people married and had children. These people raised their children as best they could. They raised their children as dysfunctional, angry, beaten and abused people.
The second generation people from the residential school system were still affected because they were raised by people who were beaten, abused and filled with self hatred. These children grew up with those very same values and carried on the teachings of the residential schools. This a very sad era for my people and a black spot in Canadian history. Something we must never forget.
There are even third and fourth generation people who are affected this system. Many of the people have rebelled in their own ways and have filled the jails, prisons and other institutions for their rebellious actions. It is so unfair that my people are jailed even though they rebel from the affects of this system. Anything that we do is labelled a bad thing and the laws come done on us very hard.
Meanwhile the non-status, non-aboriginal people jump through the justice system hoops like trained seals at a circus. The system that discriminates against my people. There is a absolute injustice. A democractic system that is not democratic. One justice system when there are two. A helpful church when it is not. A helpful, supportive loving government, when it is not.
How can a church do this to people? Who are they really REPRESENTING? Throughout history these European/Caucasion religious institutions have brought destruction to those they claim to save. I see this as an evil force that is misleading and misusing sacred power.
They seem to baptise many people from many races. What is happening is that they are taking peoples souls and spirits and transferring them to keep them in world power, that harvest of souls. When a baptised person dies, thier soul would go to the upkeep of these religions. We must revoke this baptism and pick up own own cultures. Our spirits will return to our future generations, not thiers.
They talk of the colors, black is evil and red is the devil, then I see the BIBLE and the color it comes in, black and red. Ironic.
I do my best to respect this bible, but I will not allow myself to become slave to it. Kishay Monitou/Creator gave me my life as Anishinabe and that is what I will follow, how I will die and who my spirit will re-incarnate in future generations. Think about who your spirit will go to. We do have choice here in the living. Many of my people still choose one of their grandchildren or greatgrandchilren or any child of their choice. It is possible. We are still doing this. The body may die, but the spirit lives on.
The actions of the missionaries and nuns of three or four generations ago still affect me, as an individual, today.
I am on a healing journey. I have been on this journey half my life. After realizing my horrible, negative actions and pinpointing the very root of the problem was my doorway to a bright, loving, positive future for me and my people.
I grew up in a very bad way and honestly do not wish my childhood and teenage life be repeated by anyone. I am a survivor of growing up in a alcoholic family, family and community violence, sexual abuse, cultural hatred... weaved with co-dependancy and dysfunction.
Many Anishinabe are on healing journeys. Many are picking up the teachings of our people and passing them on to others. The ones that have not forgotten are teaching those who seek that knowledge.
Our healing is inside our culture. It is in the ceremonies. The Sun Dance, the Rain Dance, the Midewin, the sweat lodges, the shake tents, the sun rise ceremonies, the pow wows, etc.
I have seen countless people healed from this residential school system by picking up their culture. Seeking out the elders and teachers that still have this old knowledge. They learn to heal and forgive and walk on. Others still walk in shame and hatred in denial that Anishinabe culture has any healing qualities or that the pain and suffering is far to greatly better off hidden deep inside the persons memory and simply denying that things so horrible can be possible.
The unloading of past injustices on a personal level and family level is GIVEN to the grandfathers (rocks). It is the grandfathers that will take your pain and suffering from you and heal you. One must GIVE it to the grandfathers. They will take the words, prayers, suffering and pain from you.
Learning and participating in ceremonies is also another way to heal ones self. Learn to be a SHKABAY, or helper. You will learn and you will be healed, simply by being a helper for those who are walking their healing journeys.
No longer shall we suffer. The grandfathers will send that energy back for us, we just need to unload our problems.
My dad was in residential school. So was his mom. My grandfather was also a residential survivor. They have walked and still walk their healing journey. Alcohol was survived and now my father stands a pillar of hope in our community that things can be turned around in a good way.
My mother never attended these schools. My grandfather was born without Indian Status after her mom married a Norweigen. He grew up with the Assabaska Ojibway and married a Assabaska Ojibway woman. They had alot of kids and they also never had official Indian Status. They should have had status all their life, but that is another story.
My mom and grandparents lived on the islands of Lake of the Woods. They followed a semi-nomadic life working as fisherman and loggers. Even though they were not recognized as Status Indians, they still carried on the Ojibway language and traditions. They were spared from Indian Policy on residential schools.
Many of the Metis or Non-status families on Lake of the Woods are still around today. They were re-instated as Status Indians after 1985, after the Government amended the Indian Act. Many of my moms sisters married back into the Status Indian communities and had their status recognition returned before the 1985 Indian Act amendment.
My mom would gather us and tell us stories about her life on the lake with out electricity and wild animals as pets. The horses and dog sleds for transportation across the ice, island to island. She told us many stories about her childhood and her interactions of her family with other families. Even the stories of her interactions with the white man who owned the fishing camps and logging companies.
At the same time, the Status Indian was living in a controlled environment under oppressive Canadian Indian Policy. The non-Status Indian was alive and passing information and traditions down in the privacy and freedom of the lakes and forests.
I do not think it was the governments plan to have the traditions of the Anishinabe continue as they did, but we survived the onslaught.
What was meant to be will be.
I am glad my dad and his side of the family got educated and I am also glad that my mom and her side of the family stayed very traditional Anishinabe. It is cool mix for the children and future generations.
My dad still remembers the Ojibway language and uses it as often as he can to help the one that need to hear it. My mom has only Ojibway langauge, she can speak in Enlgish sometimes but would prefer speaking Ojibway to us and her grandchildren. I will write about my moms life sometimes as she requested. It will help those who need the information.
Even though we may have personal, family and community problems. We are still Anishinabe. We have been given life on this earth for a reason and we must fulfill that purpose. What ever the Governments and Churches do to my people. We will survive and it ALWAYS backfires to them, leaving them wondering why we cannot be destoyed.
I love my family and community, despite the problems we face. I realize that the modern day problems stem from outside forces attempting to destroy my people. I must not be angry at my people. I must help them. They are victims in a oppresive dictatorship that is hidden under a false sheer and elegant vail of western democracy.
The only reason it is called a democracy is the fact they outnumber us. It would not be a democracy if the Indian outnumbered the non Indian.
If we had more people, our 'will' would evident and take precendence over all things. This day is also coming. We will see people scurrying around like displaced ants on a hot day, looking for protection as their treatment to the Anishinabe will return to them. It is a good day to be alive. Yet we are told to have pity for our oppressors.
Please consider walking your personal healing journey. We must heal ourselves. We cannot wait around for the government to give us that healing. It was them who gave us that abusive and dysfunctional sickness in the first place. Let the anger and pain go. Give it to the grandfathers. The spirits will come to our rescue.
There are many who walked the healing journey and it is easier for the new ones to walk. The trail has been blazed. Traditional and spiritual gifts await along side the trail and we will become stronger and we will survive.
I live in a war that is over 500 years old. A war that makes the Jewish holocaust look like a drop in the bucket in comparison.
Happy journeys!