Surviving St. Anne's Residential School
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*** 24-Hour CRISIS HOTLINE for Residential School Survivors: 1-866-925-4419 ***
Chief Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner Wilton Littlechild, segment from interview with director/producer of Erasing Cultural Genocide, Susan Enberg, 15 December 2015
NOT FOR REPRODUCTION OR DISSEMINATION
NOT FOR REPRODUCTION OR DISSEMINATION
PETITION! Residential School Survivors Should Retain Full Rights and Access to Their Testimonials www.change.org/p/the-canadian-federal-government-residential-school-survivors-should-retain-the-right-to-their-own-testimonials?recruiter=56001319&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_for_starters_page&utm_term=des-lg-no_src-no_msg&recuruit_context=fb_share_mention_control&fb_ref=Default
Research Question: Is the Canadian government - by suppressing evidence of horrific abuses that occurred against First Nations children while interned at St. Anne's Residential School - making a conscious and concerted effort to ensure that 'cultural genocide' does not become part of Canada's national historical record? In other words, is the government attempting to erase cultural genocide from Canada's historical legacy?
"All we want is justice," he said. "All we want is movement that will make me feel 'Oh, finally it's over. Finally it's over. They believe me.'" Erasing Cultural Genocide Makes the News!
www.ryerson.ca/news/news/General_Public/20160616-acknowledging-cultural-genocide.html 
Rectory where many children were abused. Burned to the ground in September 2015.
1968 Letter to Jean Chrétien, Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs: Children Not Loved and Valued at St. Anne's
Catholic Church Reponds to Chief Fontaine's Abuse Charges, October 1990 http://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/the-catholic-church-responds-to-fontaines-abuse-charges Apology by Catholic O.M.I. Missionaries to Survivors of Residential Schools, 24 July 1991
Catholic Church Feels an Enquiry Not Necessary, March 1991 A Short History of St. Anne's Residential School A Treaty Right to Education by Sheila Carr-Stewart (2001)
13 May 2016: See message about privacy concerns. New Photos added 12 May 2016
READ Our Peoples' Stories, produced by the Mushkegowuk Council
http://peoplesinquiry.com/thepeoplesstories/ READ Children of the Broken Treaty: Canada's Lost Promise and One Girl's Dream by Charlie Angus
muskratmagazine.com/charlie-angus-opens-eyes-in-children-of-the-broken-treaty/ 
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When researching residential schools in the Fall of 2014, I ran across newspaper articles and online media coverage with the former Chief of Fort Albany, Edmund Metatawabin, speaking about the horrific abuses that occurred at St. Anne's residential school: rape and other forms of sexual assault, children being forced to eat vomit, children being electrocuted in a homemade electric chair, beatings with a metal-studded cat of nine-tails, public humiliations, deaths and disappearances of children, and the attempted erasure of cultural identity by the Catholic Oblates of Mary Immaculate. While priests and nuns viciously assaulted the children at St. Anne's, the Canadian government turned a blind eye. In many ways, they still do.
I understood that these abuses brought the racism and brutality of both the Canadian federal government and the Catholic diocese to a whole new level. I then contacted Edmund, who is now a co-producer on the documentary film I am directing and producing, Erasing Cultural Genocide: a film that looks at the abuses of the past as well as the abuses being suffered by those going through the Independent Assessment Process (IAP). 17 December 2013: Edmund Metatawabin Interviewed About Abuses at St. Anne's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQgo7BBmnrk
Mushkegowuk Council, Fort Albany First Nation: http://www.mushkegowuk.com/?page_id=1998
READ Up Ghost River: A Chief's Journey Through the Turbulent Waters of Native History
by Edmund Metatawabin https://www.amazon.ca/Up-Ghost-River-Journey-Turbulent-ebook/dp/B00IQRN53I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1463944288&sr=8-1&keywords=up+ghost+river 
REPORT: Honouring the Truth and Reconciling for the Future, Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Honouring_the_Truth_Reconciling_for_the_Future_July_23_2015.pdf
REPORT: Calls to Action, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015) http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Findings/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf
REPORT: Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1991): https://qspace.library.queensu.ca/bitstream/1974/6874/5/RRCAP1_combined.pdf
READ Our Peoples' Stories, produced by the Mushkegowuk Council
http://peoplesinquiry.com/thepeoplesstories/ Davin Report, Ottawa, 14 March 1879: http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca/multimedia/pdf/davin_report.pdf
The Apology Song by Henny Jack, Tru Rez, The Cardboard Kid, Pete Nyce & NC Sage (chorus Ellen Gabriel speech) |
Children Abused at Canada's Catholic Residential Schools
posted on YouTube by Brent Stafford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkmqJlDyVe8
posted on YouTube by Brent Stafford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkmqJlDyVe8
Why are Survivor stories so important? Survivor stories need to be told in order to correct an acutely incorrect indigenous history in Canada. Survivor stories need to be told so that our government can no longer lie about genocide having occurred in Canada. Only with truths told can justice be achievable. There is great power in testimony.
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Addressing current-day obstructions of justiceCurrently, lawyers Fay Brunning and Stuart Wuttke (AFN) and Survivors of St. Anne's are in the courts to ensure that the Canadian government stops obstructing justice in the Independent Assessment Process (IAP). |
Healing now to help future generationsAs the Survivors of St. Anne's know, children learn by example. There are many efforts today, both collectively and individually, to ensure that healing of the Survivors and intergenerational Survivors is highest priority. Returning to traditional ways is often the foundation for recovery and healing.
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