Looking a Little Bit Deeper
During this Lenten time, I have been increasingly drawn to looking more deeply at the details of residential schools throughout Canada. I have been challenging myself to listen to survivor stories and to look increasingly at how current events are shaped by the past.
When I saw this headline this week in the Huffington Post, I challenged myself to read the article fully rather than skimming the surface. The numbers of suicides and suicide attempts, in this community of 8,000 people, overwhelmed me. The article explains that the flooding of traditional lands caused by a hydroelectric project, and the corresponding impact on this community’s way of life and cultural identity without any economic benefit, is the source of their ongoing despair.
A quick Google search brings up many stories of the ongoing conflict between Manitoba Hydro and the Cross Lake First Nation over the Jenpeg generating station. I think of how it exhausting it must be to live in the middle of that fight, with its apologies, settlements and broken promises.
Equally though, I think of residential schools. Was the building of the Jenpeg generating station between 1972 and 1979, and the devastating results of that project, the only contributing factor to the state of the community? Or was there a residential school there too?
Another search revealed quickly what is starting to feel like the “inevitable”. Cross Lake Residential School, also known as St. Joseph’s Residential School, was operated by the Catholic Church in Cross Lake from 1908 to 1948.
It seems that each time I dig just a little deeper into these stories of First Nations communities in crisis, the operation of a residential school is part of the legacy of ongoing and systematic repression.
Will we join our voices to those of the people of Cross Lake? Will we demand that effective resources be allocated to stop the violence, to heal First Nations people and establish lasting justice? Will we stop participating in the oppression?