School renovation project begun on north island

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'Namgis House, formerly known as St. Michael's Residential School, is being restored by the 'Namgis band. The 75-year-old building is the largest on Cormorant Island,

A project steering committee of 12 people including government, community members and former students is planning the restoration. The committee also includes former students who are not 'Namgis band members, but who are "part of the residential school survivor society," said Barb Cranmer, a 'Namgis band councillor and the project committee chairwoman.

On Feb. 23, 'Namgis House held an open house and a cleansing ceremony, as well as a fundraising raffle for a traditional food hamper.

"We've made a couple hundred dollars on the traditional food raffle. We also got $2,500 from the Anglican Church as a contribution," Cranmer said.

"It was a pretty powerful, amazing ceremony when we went to smoke the spruce boughs throughout the whole building, and it was a cleansing ceremony that we did to basically start with a new beginning, because there's a lot of pain related to the residential school. And there were some former students there that spoke after the cleansing."

She said people felt like it was the start of a complete turnaround when a building that holds negative memories was designated to be turned into something positive. Conceptual drawings were available for guests at the open house to look at.

"This residential school is actually one of the last three in the province and we are taking ownership of it," Cranmer said.

"Back in the days when kids were going to residential schools, they were actually strapped for speaking their own Native language, and now we want to make it a focal point of the revitalization to have our own Kwakwala Language Centre."

Now rented out as offices, the building could provide 31,000 square feet of space for community initiatives.

A weaving studio, carving studio, education centre, language centre, some retail areas and a performing arts theatre are all part of the plan. "We'd have an Elders' drop-in centre for language, so that they could come and speak the language during the day. . . . Some of the other things for youth programming would be teaching kids carving and weaving, and some of the crafts and some of the art."

Cranmer said the next step is a "huge capital campaign."

Chris Beaton of Cedar Consulting, which has been hired by 'Namgis First Nation as project co-ordinator, said about the cost, "I think it'll be a combination, just like any other capital campaign; it'll be government and the private sector.

"And certainly we are hoping to garner the support of the Anglican Church that was involved in that particular residential school.

"Our estimates are very early, and general estimates are probably about $5 or 6 million."

He said full renovation, the addition of elevators and exterior improvement, would take between 12 and 18 months to complete.

"In fact, we've got some government support right now for development plans, which include immediate maintenance work, roof repairs, some electrical upgrading, and sprinkler repairs, and that's already been completed with only a few thousand dollars."

Evelyn Voyageur, who is now the Vancouver Island regional co-ordinator for the Indian Residential School Survivors Society and on the project steering committee, said just tearing the building down would be like forgetting its infamous past.

The committee wants to establish a theatre to develop the talents of their youth, but the building's main function will be the Kwakwala Language Centre, she said.

The committee has also discussed putting in a museum. Voyageur said the committee's vision for the school is to restore it to "return what was taken, what we were deprived of-our language, our pride."