Wanuskewin exhibition about understanding and healing

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An exhibition currently underway at Wanuskewin Heritage Park looks to spread awareness of the residential school experience, and to help residential school survivors and their descendants deal with the ongoing effects from now defunct program. The exhibition, which opened on Feb. 25 and runs through Aug. 8, presents the most extensive collection of residential school photographs and archival material ever assembled.

"What really strikes me when I look at the exhibition . . . are the photos," shared Sheila Gamble, Wanuskewin's chief executive officer. "I think the black and white photos really say something, because I think of residential schools as being very black and white places."

The exhibition, entitled Where Are the Children? Healing the Legacy of the Residential School, was assembled through a partnership between the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, the National Archives and the Aboriginal Healing Charitable Association. It consists primarily of pictures. There are nearly 100 photos on display from residential schools across the country, dated from 1885 to 1960. Assorted maps and government documents put the pictures into historical context. The collection was first unveiled in June 2002 at the National Archives in Ottawa, and the Wanuskewin display is the second stop on the exhibition's 13 city cross-Canada tour, which will run until 2005.

Given Wanuskewin's mission of increasing public awareness and understanding of First Nations issues, Gamble was enthusiastic about providing a venue for the tour. As she explained, few issues have affected the Aboriginal community more profoundly than the residential school program.

"The biggest reason I wanted it here is because residential schools did something that isn't talked about much. They were a way of destroying culture," she said. "I believe knowledge of your culture, of who you are and where you come from, is a way to have high self-esteem. It's a way to success."

The Where are the Children? exhibition was put together with exactly these sentiments in mind. During consultations with Indigenous youth in 2001, Aboriginal Healing Foundation staff repeatedly heard how the youth wanted to know more about residential schools, so that healing and reconciliation could finally take place.

"Residential schools led to a lot of family difficulties and problems, and I think some healing needs to be done. Having the display here is a chance for people who don't know the story to learn about it, and develop some understanding and empathy. It's also a chance for people who've had the experience to maybe start coming to terms with it, so they can begin their healing journeys," said Gamble.

As the issue is so emotionally charged and sensitive, help is being made available for all exhibition attendees who request it.

"The display has sensitive material that might be emotionally stressful for some of the people that come through," Gamble noted, "so the Foundation has supplied us with full-time counsellors and Elders. They're available, anytime we call them, for people to confer with."

A growing body of research is testifying that many of the most troubling problems currently facing Aboriginal communities-from suicide to addiction to violence and abuse -stem, at least in part, from residential school roots. Gamble's first-hand experiences only back up these findings.

"People who survived residential schools have told me, 'We didn't learn how to share love. We didn't learn how a family runs and operates. We just can't show love or feeling, because we weren't allowed to do it as little kids.'"

Looking at photographs isn't apt to miraculously break this self-sustaining cycle, but it can open the way for further discussion, for greater understanding and empathy, and for a future in which the residential school legacy can finally be laid to rest.

"Everyone is welcome, and we'd really like to have people come out," Gamble summed up. "We think this is imortant."