Survivors gather in Winnipeg to share experiences at TRC event

Paul Daniels sat by himself, the Assiniboine River his backdrop at the Forks National Park, as he ate a bagged lunch courtesy of the churches.

For Daniels, it’s the least the churches could do. He’s waiting on a hearing through the independent assessment process to see how much financial compensation he will receive for the sexual abuse he suffered during his eight years as a day scholar at Fort Alexander residential school northeast of Winnipeg.
“The compensation I’m waiting for plays a very minor part in (my healing). I wish we would be treated the same as anyone else,” Daniels said, speaking softly.
Daniels said he wanted to be a lawyer once but “my brokenness stopped me from achieving it.”

Fort Alexander residential school was run by the Catholic church. Daniels was sexually abused by the priest of the time.

“He did a lot of damage to me. I suffered panic attacks most of my life. I started healing because of my own culture. Today, I’m proud of my heritage. I’m a man. I’m whole. The Creator made me who I am. Residential school tried to change me to be a white man. That’s the thing that caused the most damage to my people,” he said.

Daniels, an Anishinaabe from Sagkeeng First Nation, attended the first national event hosted by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission from June 16 to 19. However, his story was not one told in the sharing circles. He said he was too distressed by his upcoming hearing to be able to speak to a group. He did, however, come to support other survivors.

At least one commissioner was in attendance at every sharing circle and stories were recorded. Stories shared by residential school survivors were powerful. On the first day, TRC chair Justice Murray Sinclair and commissioners Wilton Littlechild and Marie Wilson participated in a special sharing circle and listened to 15 invited guests answer the question, How did residential school affect your life?

Indian and Northern Affairs federal minister Chuck Strahl broke down after listening to an impassioned plea by a survivor for the government to help access records so girls who became pregnant at residential schools and had their babies taken from them and given up for adoption could track them down.

Strahl said that as a father of four and grandfather of nine, he couldn’t imagine what parents went through having their children taken away.

Survivors talked repeatedly about abuse of all kinds, not only at the school, but at home. Some recounted stories of being sexually abused by family, who were former residential school survivors; being physically abused by parents, who did not know how to parent.

Survivors talked about covering up deaths at the schools and unmarked graves and bones of students scattered on the grounds. There were survivors who had offered forgiveness to their abusers, and survivors who still looked for their abusers on the streets in order to exact justice.

There were survivors who had abused their bodies with substances, begging and prostitution and who had climbed out of the dark hole, and there were survivors who were still living on the streets. There were survivors who had found healing in their traditional culture and survivors who had found healing in a combination of traditional culture and Christianity.

There were survivors who reached out to others to help with their healing and survivors who were still trying to work through their own healing.

There was also the strong message that what happened to survivors would not happen to their descendants.
Said Livinia Brown, an Inuit, “It’s a past we’re not going to see again, I hope. We’re not going to let that happen. I have 10 children, over 40 grandchildren and great great grandchildren and I want to make sure they don’t go through that abuse.”

Also taking part in the first circle were Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo and president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami Mary Simon.

Daniels hoped the event would provide much needed publicity about what happened to Aboriginal people.

“For me, this is for the education of the dominant society. Every Canadian should know what happened to the Aboriginal people. It would give them an understanding of why we are how we are today,” said Daniels, who was disappointed at the lack of non-Aboriginals at the four-day event.

In his opening remarks, Sinclair backed up Daniels’ assessment. Said Sinclair, “Despite all of what has been produced, there are a vast number of people across this country with little or no knowledge of Indian Residential Schools and the impact that those school have had on Aboriginal people.”

All parties to the Indian Residential School Agreement had representatives at the opening ceremony.

“It’s been a long journey to get here. . . and we have a long way to go until we find the healing and reconciliation that we all need,” said Rev. Dr. Herb Gale, moderator for the Presbyterian Church of Canada.

Over 40,000 people filtered through the grounds during the course of the event. The next national TRC event is planned for June 2011 in Inuvik, N.W.T. There will be seven national events hosted by the TRC over a five-year period.