Lakehead University students and faculty learn of the 100 Years of Loss

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY—The 100 Years of Loss: The Residential School System in Canada Mobile Exhibition was presented from April 10-12 at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay. It was hosted by Lakehead University’s Office of Aboriginal Initiatives and the Conseil scolaire de district catholique des Aurores boréales.

“This history is an important one — it has not gone away, it is not going away, it’s always going to be there,” says Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux, chair on Truth and Reconciliation at Lakehead University and a Chippewas of Georgina Island citizen. “It’s not about making people feel guilty, it’s about people being educated and understanding. And as we move towards the health that we are moving very quickly towards, it will be something that you all as Canadians need to understand and appreciate and respect.”

Wesley-Esquimaux says her mother was sent to residential school for eight years and her stepfather for 12 years, starting when he was just four-years-old.

“So when people talk about the intergenerational effect of residential schools, you’re looking at it through me and you’re looking at it through a lot of the students we have in the student body,” Wesley-Esquimaux says. “They are intergenerational survivors of residential schools and they’re still deeply affected sometimes by those experiences that their parents had. And many of those intergenerational survivors have not had the opportunity to tell their stories.”

Wesley-Esquimaux spoke during the opening ceremony along with a variety of other speakers, including Fort William Councillor Michele Solomon; David Barnett, Lakehead University’s acting provost and vice president Academic; Nancy Bouchard, chair of Lakehead University’s Ogimaawin-Aboriginal Governance Council; Denise Baxter, vice provost Aboriginal Initiatives at Lakehead University; and Alexandra Mauro, leader in School, First Nations, Métis and Inuit Well-Being at the Conseil scolaire de district catholique des Aurores boréales.

“This exhibit is another way to bring the history to the people, mainstream people and Indigenous people, a lot of them who may not know the intimate details of what happened in residential schools,” Solomon says. “I just finished having a conversation with a member of the Faculty of Education here at Lakehead University and [many of] her first-year students don’t have any awareness of the 100 Years of Loss and awareness of the residential schools or the intergenerational impact it has on people. So this is very important to moving forward.”

A Student Panel on Learning from the Experiences of Indigenous Students was held after the opening ceremony.

“I think it is an important part of recognizing the place of Indigenous students in our institution and to recognize also that we can learn from students and be taught by students,” says Clifford Mushquash, a second-year Lakehead University student and Pays Plat citizen who participated on the Student Panel. “Knowledge acquisition isn’t just one directional, and I think that is what this event represents as well. It was encouraging to see a number of faculty here and a number of university staff here. I think it is an important sign of moving forward together.”

The 100 Years of Loss exhibition includes the early days of European expansion into North America; the decades of advocacy and healing efforts by Aboriginal peoples; the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement; the 2008 federal apology to survivors and their families; and the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2009.

It also includes a focus on the legacy of the residential school system and direct links between the residential school system and contemporary social crises afflicting Aboriginal communities across the country.