Residential school survivor walks for justice

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Crossing the Somass River was a powerful moment for Martha Joseph. The river that once served as a natural boundary preventing Joseph, the child, from going home was now a welcome sight at the end of the long journey she took as an adult seeking justice.

Joseph, the only female plaintiff in the group of 31 Alberni Indian Residential School (AIRS) survivors who took the government and United Church of Canada to court in 1998, is now looking to heal wounds reopened during the three-year-long trial.

Four days previous to her arrival in Alberni, the 63-year-old Gitksan grandmother started a fundraising walk from Nanaimo to the former AIRS site to raise funds for a court appeal.

One of seven plaintiffs who stayed with the process until the end (two plaintiffs committed suicide and 22 settled out-of-court), Martha was the only remaining plaintiff not to receive any form of monetary settlement in the court decision. British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Donald Brenner dismissed her case saying "No damages were proven."

"Judge Brenner did me wrong," said Joseph as she entered Port Alberni on the final leg of her journey. "I'm the only one who knows how much pain the residential school caused me. I never got to tell my mom how much I loved her, because I was a child and believed the people who ran the school who told me that the reason I was there was because my family didn't love me and didn't want me," she said.

Joseph's arrival was timed with a Nuu-chah-nulth residential school healing project regional meeting at the newly completed Tseshaht longhouse. Tears filled her eyes as she was carried the last mile in a canoe.

"This walk has really helped my healing," said Joseph. "Everything went so great along the way. It's powerful. It's awesome."

According to Joseph, she sold off all of her possessions to pay her legal fees and living expenses during the trial.

"This experience has helped me regain my strength," said Joseph. "What happened wasn't my fault. Now I can dust myself off and leave my shame here. It was the government's fault and they're the ones who have to live with it," she said.