Edmonton residential school conference a huge success

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It began as a modest idea to bring together, perhaps, 500 care providers from across the country to share experiences and find better ways to help the survivors of the residential school system.

But more than 2,000 people crammed into downtown Edmonton's Shaw Conference Centre for the first international residential school conference, hosted on Feb. 23, 24 and 25 by the Western Cree Tribal Council. Three northern Alberta First Nations make up the tribal council ? the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, Duncan's First Nation and Horse Lake First Nation.

Sturgeon Lake Chief Gerry Goodswimmer, the vice-chief of the tribal council, came up with the idea for the conference. He believes too many non-Native, and even some Native care-providers, don't have a real understanding of what they're dealing with when they seek to treat residential school survivors.

"They lack knowledge about what happened," he told Sweetgrass. "They don't take the time to really acknowledge what really happened to these people."

Goodswimmer believes the Canadian public, despite widespread media coverage of the issue, still has a lot to learn ? and a lot of harsh reality to face ? about what happened in their country and what it costs Aboriginal people. And, he added, some Native people still need to accept that the ravages of the residential school system are deep-rooted, extensive and need to be confronted head on.

"The people who are older, the Elders ? and I'm not saying all of the Elders but some of the Elders ? say it's something that happened in the past and you should leave it like that. It's been out in the open and now it's in the past," he said. "But I tell them, as a chief, I see it in my community every day. In child welfare, education or recreation, I see the multi-generational issues that affect us. And I said, 'No. I'm not going to let it go. I'm going to continue.' It's part of a history. An oppressive system that stagnated First Nations communities for a long time."

Federal government lawyers are trying to exclude access to legal compensation for inter-generational effects ? the harm done to the next generation by residential school students who were deprived of loving parental influences and taught that their culture was inferior. Goodswimmer believes Aboriginal leaders must find a way to make the government and the churches account for the problems that persist in their communities because of the schools.

"It is here. It's still here and it still affects us. We have to deal with it," he said.

While many First Nation leaders are concentrating on economic development as the way to heal their communities, Goodswimmer said he and his colleagues on the tribal council believe healing must come first.

"Some tribal councils focus on economic development but Western Cree Tribal Council has focussed on the human spirit. You have to heal the human spirit before you can succeed in economic development," he said.

Goodswimmer and the staff put the conference together with the support of the other tribal council chiefs. The three days of meetings were busy, hectic and confusing at times because so many more people than expected arrived in Edmonton to attend. But things went surprisingly well.

"We had a lot more people than what we had planned on having," said assistant conference co-ordinator Gary Moostoos. "But we decided we couldn't turn anybody away. The target group was the service providers but the survivors needed to be there."

Moostoos said busloads of people from all over Canada and parts of the United States arrived as the conference began. Many former school residents met up with former classmates they hadn't seen since their school days.

"A lot of tears flowed in that complex over the weekend,' he added. "And that's what people need ? to let their tears fall."

Marlene Peters had the nerve-racking task of organizing the volunteers, a job that became more demanding as the numbers rose.

"What I will remember is how everybody worked together," he said. "We ended up having about 300 volunteers. Everybody wanted to be a part of it. It just worked out really well."

Reached in his office on the Monday after things wrapped up, Goodswimmer was still savoring the events of the weekend.

"I'm still not coming down from it," he said. "My band members feel really proud that Sturgeon Lake became a part of it. There was a residential school in our community and it's something we never addressed. There's still things we have to work on in our next conference."

That next conference is tentatively scheduled for the spring of 2002 in Edmonton.