"Our Memories Need to be Preserved"

By Doug George-Kanentiio

On September 30 Canada formally acknowledged the pain of the residential school era by setting aside that day as one of annual remembrance for the nation.

Thousands of people gathered before the Canadian Parliament to commemorate the survivors, honor the dead and call for the repatriation of the thousands of children yet to be found on the grounds of the former schools.

The Mohawks of Akwesasne were well represented by Iakaione Louise Herne, the Akwesasne Women Singers with a special ballad by Theresa Bear Fox and a call to action by Jonel Beauvais. Ms. Herne warned the country that unless it changed its ways the name Canada, a Mohawk one, may well be revoked. Ms. Beauvais spoke with such force and passion I expected the buildings in front of her to shake-she represented a generation who have been deeply affected by the trauma caused to their parents and grandparents, victims of a national policy meant to divorce native people from their lands by stripping them of their culture and physically beating them into submission.

My turn came and I did not waste any time.

I said the time has come when we rise above being victims and are ready to take charge of our lives. We do so by taking an active part in these walks and rallies in memory of Joey Commanda, the 13-year-old Algonquin boy killed on September 3, 1968 as he fled from the Mohawk Institute. I cited the fact that there were nine Akwesasronon at the Institute, all friends with Joey, who had been collectively expelled from the mush hole because of our defiance and our insolence. We were told not to come back in June 1968 but Joey and his brother Rocky did return and when they found out their Mohawk friends were not there they ran with Rocky being arrested in Hamilton, Ontario and Joey trekking another 50 km before being struck and killed by a commuter train in Toronto.

I mentioned Joey with the approval of his Pikawaganan (Gold Lake) family as his fate might have been ours given our history of running from that place of punishment.

I said there were four points we, as survivors, want to see happen.

We want to replicate the Survivors Secretariat at Ohsweken, an organization created by the Mohawk Institute survivors. The group has the authority under an agreement with the Six Nations Council to oversee any and all programs, community events, proposals and plans having to do with the residential schools. They are the primary source, the educators and nothing is done without their involvement. As we have said at Akwesasne “nothing for us without us”.

We need such entities across the nation if the survivors are to be more than victims. The best way to resolve the issues facing the survivors is for us to plan according to what we see as most effective. We need to learn from the failure of the Truth and Reconciliation process as that was done without our consent. We need set pensions for each survivor and not have to repeat the humiliations of the Independent Assessment Program in which we were compelled to tell the most terrible of events in exchange for minimal compensation with the provision that we had to prove our stories. As a result, thousands of survivors had their submissions rejected.

I said point two was the declaration of every residential school as a crime scene. Thousands of human remains have been located, thousands more remain to be found. This conspiracy of silence was maintained by Canada for decades but now the burial sites are being located. I suspect most of the children will have died of illnesses, but their deaths would have been caused, in part, by malnutrition. Others were the victims of violence and a crime scene designation will lead to my third point: criminal liability.

Supervisors at the schools knew of the physical abuse of which some took part. They knew of these deaths. They escaped prosecution. If they are alive, I insisted they be formally charged. Age is no defense, no cover. Those institutions who failed to protect the children must also be accountable. Further, my point was the need for a stand-alone National Indigenous Museum with a Residential School component. Our memories need to be preserved within the context of our common history. Such a facility would also be our legacy and stand long after the 20 survivors at Akwesasne have passed along with those others across Canada.

At the conclusion I said we need to act on the three moral foundations of the Great Law of Peace: Skennen, Kariwiio and Kasatstensera: peace, power, righteousness. Peace to clear our minds, power to act and righteousness to know that what we do is good.

As part of our emergence from being victims we will ask all of our people to support the creation of an Akwesasne Survivors Secretariat to carry on the tremendous work before us.