TRC opening emotional event for survivors

Using hands that were once tied, Sonia Wuttunee of the Red Pheasant First Nation told her story through an interpreter of the abuse she suffered at R.J.D. Williams School for the Deaf in Saskatoon.

Wuttunee, with twin sister Donna there to support her, was among 15 people to take part in an invitation-only sharing circle hosted by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on June 16, the first day of the TRC’s inaugural national event, at the Forks, in Winnipeg.

Wuttunee and her sister attended grades one to three at a public school where it was discovered Wuttunee was deaf. “That was it. That changed everything overnight,” she said.

Much of Wuttunee’s story was punctuated with tears and silence, with a support worker standing behind her, offering support with a hand on her back and Kleenex to wipe away tears.

Wuttunee was sent to the R.J.D. Williams School for the Deaf in Saskatoon and Donna was sent to Duck Lake Residential School.

Others in the sharing circle wept as Wuttunee talked about being taken away from her “womb mate” and thrown into a school that, although it had a high number of Aboriginal children, still presented a “huge cultural shock.” She talked about her beautiful, long braids which she never had enough time to braid in the morning and which were cut off.
“I was proud of my braids,” she said.

Teachers told her she was Indian and “dirty” and scrubbed her hands “so hard they would bleed.”

Wuttunee’s hands were also tied up so she couldn’t use them to speak.

She was sexually abused repeatedly and eventually became anorexic and sick and was sent home by the doctor to die. She spent several months on and off in the hospital.

Wuttunee didn’t tell anyone of her experience at the school for the deaf until 22 years later when she had a “flashback to the sexual abuse I had experienced.” This happened when she was at the University of Washington, pursuing her Masters degree in Social Work. She phoned Donna, who came right away, and told her what had happened at the School for the Deaf.

Wuttunee has filed a class action lawsuit to add the R.J.D. Williams School for the Deaf to the list of residential schools recognized by the government. Approximately 80 per cent of the children attending the school were Aboriginal.

Darwin Blind shared his story with commissioners Murray Sinclair and Wilton Littlechild the following day in a sharing circle opened solely to men. Commissioner Marie Wilson met with the women.

Blind, a member of the George Gordon First Nation, attended Gordon Residential School, north of Regina, for 10 years, after being shipped there when he was six years old. He spoke brokenly about the children buried in unmarked graves around the school, bones that have been dug up and “spirits... still crying.”

The Gordon school was the last to close its doors in 1996, seven years after the first group of survivors came forward to tell their stories of abuse. Blind said the lawyer that represented the group was so affected that he left his profession.

Blind’s parents also attended a residential school, but he said it wasn’t until they were in their 70’s that he was able to talk to them about their experiences and to share his own experience of sexual abuse.

“I’m now a grandfather... I was never able to be a father to my own children as a result of what happened to me. I’m now trying to make a difference with my grandchildren. Trying to show them what genuine love is in parenting,” said Blind.

For now, he is working toward “true reconciliation” and Donna Wuttunee noted that her sister had forgiven her abusers. But many other survivors talked about looking for their abusers on the street, wanting to exact their own justice.

Open-ended questions were thrown out as to why the federal government hired teachers, who abused and degraded their students and what legal code Oblate fathers were operating under when they killed, abused and forced students to bury the dead. One woman sobbed when she asked Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl to open the records so that women who had their babies given away when they became pregnant and gave birth at residential schools, would be able to find them.

Survivors spoke over and over again about the sexual, mental, emotional, and physical abuse they suffered from, not only at the schools, but also at home. Another female survivor related the story of being raped by her step-brother and brother in her home, both boys having attended residential school as well. Many also talked about not having anyone to turn to, to tell their story to.

For many, it took decades to finally speak about their abuse. Another common experience was the rage and hatred that filled survivors once they left school, their inability to connect with the parents they had left behind, and the inability to parent their own children. Many became substance abusers, lived on the streets. While many remain on the streets, others were able to find their way again.

In sharing circles, survivors reached out to each other, putting hands on the shoulders of those telling their stories, while trained support workers made the rounds, providing silent support, water and Kleenex.

Over 40,000 people attended the four-day event.

Emotions ran high and it was perhaps fitting that three of the four days of the first national event were held with grey skies and rain as the backdrop, with sunshine breaking through on occasion.

The next national event is planned for June 2011 in Inuvik, NWT. There will be seven national events hosted by the TRC over a five-year period.