First Nations to gather for demolition of residential school
Posted February 13, 2015 11:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
ALERT BAY (NEWS1130) – They’re calling it a day to say goodbye to a dark shadow on the landscape and on Canadian lives.
This coming Wednesday a special ceremony will mark the beginning of the demolition of St. Michael’s Indian Residential School in Alert Bay, off the coast of Vancouver Island.
“In a very symbolic way, this is going to help us liberate ourselves from a haunting past,” says Chief Dr. Robert Joseph, a St. Michael’s survivor and Reconciliation Canada Ambassador.
The Anglican-church run school was opened in 1929 and closed in the 1970s. It housed 200 children every year.
St. Michael’s doesn’t have the ominous reputation that other residential schools, such as the Alberni Indian Residential School, have. Alberni is associated with dorm supervisor Arthur Plint who was jailed for 18 counts of indecent assault dating from 1948 to 1953 and from 1963 to 1968.
But Joseph says every residential school symbolizes a sad childhood.
“There was never a saving grace to take little children from their homes and destroy their languages and culture and to remove them from the influence of their parents and their natural community.”
Joseph was six when he started school there. He’s now 75.
He says Wednesday’s ceremony will entail a survival prayer, a moment of silence and a sacred flame, into which people can toss their personal messages.
He suggests many people will be throwing their student numbers into the fire, because they used to be known by their numbers rather than their names.
“It’s a historic moment that belongs to all of us. We should take it for what it is. It can be a moment to acknowledge our past. We made some mistakes, but we can look forward to the future together.”
The First Nations community is hoping some sort of monument will be built once the school is torn down.
