On a stone residential school monument at Rainy River First Nations (RRFN) there are 154 names of band members who are survivors or have since deceased.
“We are all tied to the residential school era whether you want to admit or not,” said Marcel Medicine Horton, a RRFN Sixties Scoop survivor.
“We are all descendants of these 154 people,” he added, in reference to RRFN band members.
To honour those who were forced into residential school while they operated from 1831 to 1996, the fourth-annual Orange Shirt Day Awareness Walk is being held at the Indian Residential School Monument at RRFN next Tuesday (Oct. 1) at 10 a.m.
“I get very emotional when you start thinking of the 154 people on that rock,” said Medicine Horton, who’s helping organize the walk.
“Orange Shirt Day is an era of Canadian history that we can never ever forget.”
The annual event is meant to highlight Phyllis Webstad’s story.
She attended residential school in the early ’70s and even though her family had little money, they managed to purchase a beautiful orange shirt for her before starting class.
“When she got to school, it was immediately discarded–thrown in the garbage,” Medicine Horton recalled.
“Just that disrespect, that hurt, that’s what we want to raise awareness around, to make sure people don’t ever treat those young kids that way again.
“If you say that orange shirt is warranted for the garbage, guess what, we’re going to wear it proudly today. . . as a badge of honour,” he added.
The event is being hosted by the RRFN Indian Residential School Survivors Working Group and five schools–from Big Grassy First Nation to Fort Frances–will be in attendance. But everyone is invited to participate.
Medicine Horton said it’s very important to get today’s youth to understand the effect residential schools had on those who were removed from their families and forced to attend.
“It’s not a cliché, they are our leaders . . . when these young kids do grow up, we want them to remember this,” he said.
For Medicine Horton, the awareness walk is about sharing indigenous culture and taking a step forward to reconcile Canada’s dark past.
“This has to be the start of those 94 calls to reconciliation,” he remarked.
“Reconciliation is sharing to me and respecting one another and that’s it. Period.”
Joe Medicine, 73, who attended St. Marguerite’s Indian Residential School from 1953-61, says some people his age still don’t recognize the lasting effects it’s had on survivors.
“It’s a big part of history,” he said. “What they’ve done to native kids when they were young–took them away from their parents, tried to kill the Indian and their values, tradition, and culture.
“They told us our culture was pagan, that we were devils, and I believed that for a long time,” Medicine added.
At St. Marguerite’s, he said they were taught Christian values by the school’s priests and nuns who would punish them if they didn’t accept that doctrine.
“I think every one of us at the school became alcoholics,” Medicine recalled. “It still impacts my life in lots of areas.”
He says because of residential school, he’s missed out on learning native singing, dancing, medicine, and other traditional teachings.
Medicine has since raised four kids, who he was unable to pass his culture to because it was stripped away from him by design at residential school.
It’s estimated that 150,000 indigenous children went through the residential school system and upwards of 6,000 died while attending, according to estimates from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The odds of dying in residential school was higher than that of Canadians who served in World War Two.
Medicine Horton said this year’s Orange Shirt Day Awareness Walk feature keynote speakers who will put into perspective the legacy of residential schools.
“I really think that this is a start,” he enthused. “It’s our fourth year, and we haven’t even begun the true sharing of our culture.”
