SFN Chief Mike Wyse addresses a large crowd at Maffeo Sutton Park beneath a new 50 foot high totem pole produced by SFN carver Noel Brown. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Ian Holmes

A day to listen

Large Nanaimo event provides lesson on pain caused by residential schools

Sep 30, 2021 | 1:39 PM

Editor’s Note: The following story contains descriptions of trauma and abuse suffered by Indigenous peoples at residential schools and hospitals. Discretion is advised. The National Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide 24/7 support to residential school survivors and others who are affected. Call 1 (866) 925-4419.

NANAIMO — A large crowd crowd including many non-Indigenous people gathered at Maffeo Sutton Park on Thursday to listen.

The National Day for Truth & Reconciliation Day event drew roughly 1,500 people to a somber gathering at Maffeo Sutton park to hear the misery caused by the country’s residential school system and forging a positive path forward.

Under the watch of a new towering welcome pole, Snuneymuxw First Nation chief Mike Wyse took to the microphone to deliver a powerful address to the attentive audience.

Chief Wyse said many of their members continue to be haunted by their mistreatment at residential schools and the Nanaimo Indian Hospital.

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“For generations now to this day Snuneymuxw people walk through life carrying these burdens without acknowledgment and denial of these violent experiences of our history. This history is passed down to our young people, causing inter-generational trauma within our families and community.”

Chief Wyse asked people to imagine their child at a young age being ripped away and placed in a residential school, where they were subject to various forms of abuse and attempts made to remove a culture.

Outfitted in traditional Indigenous head wear, Wyse expressed optimism of increased understanding of how Indigenous peoples across Canada were mistreated for centuries.

“Today is a day filled with encouragement. All of you gathering here this morning to tell the survivors and ancestors ‘We see you, we acknowledge you and we hear you for now and forever.”

The event hosted by SFN, City of Nanaimo and Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools was staged to honour children lost at Canada’s residential schools, those who survived, and families impacted by the system.

SFN Elder Gary Manson opened the proceedings with an address, while drumming and speeches by several dignitaries followed.

Lolly Good, an SFN Elder, welled up in tears explaining how the “horrors and brutality” of her residential school experience tormented herself and her family.

Good suppressed her residential school experiences for several years before her healing journey began.

“Being a fourth generation residential school survivor I suffered mentally, emotionally, physically, abandonment and rejection. Somehow I was able to express my lost soul in writing,” Good said.

While visibly emotional discussing lost children and survivors of residential schools, Mayor Leonard Krog said he was encouraged by the event’s substantial turnout.

He said he has faith we can build “that better country that I was taught to believe in.”

“We have a tremendous opportunity when we gather in numbers like this to exchange our views, to touch one another, to reach out,” Krog said. “But I think it is important that much has been said, but what is important is that much remains to be done.”

Maffeo Sutton Park was full of orange shirts during a National Truth & Reconciliation Day event at Nanaimo’s Maffeo Sutton Park. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

Following a subdued tone for most of the proceedings, the crowd erupted into a loud cheer when SFN member and renowned carver Noel Brown was introduced.

His new 50 foot high welcoming pole was properly fastened into place just prior to the event.

Last spring Sept. 30, also known as Orange Shirt Day, was formally recognized federally as a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The declaration was made following the discovery of thousands of unmarked graves at residential school sites across Canada.

Among the discoveries was an announcement in July of 160 undocumented and unmarked graves on at a residential school site on Penelakut Island east of Chemainus.

One hundred students were known to have died at the school.

Residential schools and hospitals operated in B.C. Between 1863 and 1985, according to the province.

SFN recently announced plans to use ground-penetrating radar at the Nanaimo Indian Hospital site off Fifth St. to search for unmarked graves of Indigenous people.

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ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes