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Muffins for Granny Movie (Heron Bay???) The timeline of Residential Schools  First Nations Treaty signatories asked for school on their reserves so that they could learn to read and write in English as well as maintain their own languages and forms of knowledge  The Canadian state saw education as a tool for assimilation  Ottawa preferred residential schools to day schools on reserves because the separation from family and familiar land base accelerated assimilation  Ottawa did not want to spend the money setting up and staffing the schools, so they handed the matter over to an independent source of income: the Churches, and eager teachers: missionaries You learn by observing, you learn by doing on the land. All the skills that you needed to survive. All the stories that you required for your history and for your entertainment. It was all done through active participation. It took a little while for people to come to terms with the new system. It changed the entire economy and the dynamic of how communities operate. - everybody moved around the land seasonally, following the standards that they would follow - the kids were out with their parents all the time - now you have a system where the kids are in day school, you can’t take off - it changed the entire way that people organized themselves throughout a calendar year - Assimilation happened too slowly - As long as you had the children in contact with their parents everyday, they would maintain their languages. Language acquisition was slow. - They would maintain their ceremonies, their connection to their history, to their land - Governments just don’t want to spend money - Many first nation communities are “remote”, it’s costly to get materials up there, etc. the government has been looking for alternative sources to take on the cost of education: they handed it over to the Church (eager to take it on, because it was their mission as good Christian preachers, it was their actual life mission to convert people) - The churches themselves weren’t super rich. Two types of early schools: boarding schools, and industrial schools  boarding schools were schools on reserve territory where students up to age 14 would study/sleep and go home on the weekends  industrial schools were off-reserve. Curriculum for boys: agriculture, crafts, some trades, Christianity  curriculum for girls: domestic work – cooking, cleaning, sewing, mending, Christianity  The purpose was to prepare students for the lower fringe of the dominant society – low paid labour (similar to today’s plans for Aboriginal Education)  It was found that assimilation (ie the loss of Aboriginal language/culture) was quicker at the offreserve location, so on all residential schools were off-reserve, many serving all ages  Purpose of residential schools was not to create leaders, engineers, scientists, doctors. The purpose of it was to give the children just enough skill that they would be useful as a labour force.  You see that same thing today. Increasing education funds for Aboriginal people, similar reasoning Abuses - sexual – rape, touching. Offending priests/nuns were either ignored by the authorities or ….. many abuses. What is an Apology?

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Church groups and governments have made general apologies and official apologies. What is an apology? What has changed since the closing of the residential schools? What has changed since the apology? o Acknowledging you’ve done something wrong… there is a certain amount of humility in that. Humble yourself to the other What is forgiveness? o Asking for mercy, it is a request o The social purpose of apology and the acceptance of apology is a way for both parties to heal. In order for one party to make an apology, they have to acknowledge that they have done something wrong. They are hurting, they come and they make an apology. o The party who was wronged, they feel like they also need to heal from that wrong. If they choose not to accept the apology, there remains a tension. By accepting an apology and at least making an honest effort to forgive, allows for that healing process to happen o Both parties need to heal. Both parties are hurting. When we imagine a school of this size, where there is a field of children there at any one time. We think of how many families throughout the bush, as these children were being collected… those people came to take those kids away. All the voices that are here gathered in one spot, and the silence that was enforced. Generations with no laughter. How empty the forests are. The animals must have noticed.

MUFFINS FOR GRANNY: FILM 1. There are 6 interviewees in this film, 3 men and 3 women. Write their names as they appear and leave some space to write down some of the experiences they shared from their time at residential school. Roy Thomas: Anishinaabe. People of this land. Everything I have learned was through the teachings of my grandfather. Learning about the ways of nature and our culture. It was there, at an early age, that I remember the good times. - my grandmother was the one that used to tell me stories - in order for me to illustrate it, I would draw it on the ground, in the dark - sees jesus nailed to the cross: who is that? Why did they do that to him? Is that what is going to happen to us? Of course I could never ask that question Johnson Where I come from, a lot of people are named after different products you would see at that time. - I did not learn about love. I learned about abuse. We were told Ojibway is the devil’s language. We remained quiet for quite a while before we learned to speak English Mrs. Alice Littledeer My name was Iris… first thing I remember was going to church on a spring day. I’m riding on the sleigh, my dad is pulling us. I remember. -for three years I cried my head off. - was sixteen when I left school. When I was about 40, that’s when I really felt cornered. With all the anger in me all the time… that’s when I started drinking my husband was an abuser. He was drinking too much.

Day-lynn Richard - parents are Rosie and Marceau. They both did go to residential schools. They told me they did. - I would wake up screaming. I had nightmares. My dad was violent. He wouldn’t tell us what it was like. - My friends died. They were found naked and one was decapitated. I want to honour her. She was my friend. Elena Richard - moved to haron bay when I was around 10 or 11 years old. That’s where I grew up - I have an adopted mother, because my mom gave me away when I was 10 days old - Your granny used to tell me how they brought me there. She was there. I remember when she got buried. I remember all those things. A lot of good memories about her. - There was nobody there to help us. I had a younger sister, they didn’t take her right away. - We were told we would never amount to anything. - I drank a lot. I thought drinking would make me happy. I tried to forget.

2. Paying attention to story telling: what types of shots does Nadia McLaren use to supplement the interviews? Why do you think she uses that footage to tell a fuller story? - images of people cooking bannock - dancing around a fire - “granny was my greatest gift” – water shot - ducks following their mother duck through the water - deer on the side of the railroad. Disrupting the nature by the loud train - deer runs away in fright - Canadian flag waving - Image of a wavering plant in the rushing water, trying to stand firm and tall but wavering. - Baby bears following their mom - when they are describing being taken, little flashes of being in a car and trees whizzing past. Frightful imagery - rainbow and waterfall - a new morning, trees, sunshine, water. Hope. Nature. - Zooms in on peoples’ faces while they’re telling their stories. Something about the face that is just so HUMAN. Beautiful faces. Their eyes. Their mouths. What they have seen, the words that have touched their lips. - Throughout: the storyline of people baking. In little pieces. Small plotline. 3. What are some of the negative ways that some of the interviewees initially coped with their experience at residential schools? Johnson abused alcohol for a number of years. I drank when I was old enough from about 14-28 years old. Drank pretty heavily. Lots of drugs. I got into a lot of trouble. I spent most of my time locked up behind bars. Johnson shot himself in the chest when he was 21 years old. When I was sitting out in the bush with the gun to my chest, I thought of the words the roman catholic priest told us that if we commit suicide, we will burn in hell forever and ever. I decided to press the trigger. I could stand my skin burning forever but I couldn’t stand what was happening in my life. I did a lot of crazy things. Soon nobody was hanging around with me

I started having fights with people. My mind was a little stronger, and in one of those fights, I became so angered, that I went to get my husband’s shotgun, and I was looking for the shells, I took them. I put one shell in the gun. I think the guys were trying to talk to me. But I didn’t listen to anybody. I just took that gun and aimed and shot. “a lot of my friends made it, a lot of my friends didn’t.” - I remember the nuns would ask me to brush their hair in their room. Then I woke up on the bed. That’s all I remember. - I remember hearing girls screaming and I would cover my ears because I knew I couldn’t help her 4. What are some of the ways that the interviewees turned away from the negative and toward the positive? Because the silence has been broken, there is a sense of hope. There is a sense of “yeah, we can get over this.” Crying is good because it is healing me. - when I do talk now about It, I just start crying. Some of it is good, some of it was bad. Most of it was bad for me. - I got counseling at the district jail, which I learned is pretty good when you go to a treatment centre. You get pretty good counseling

For the longest time in my life I never asked anybody to help me. I need some help. Yes, I have a lot of sad stories. But they have made me strong. I do not drink, I don’t use alcohol or drugs. Because, I guess I was meant to tell a story. Churches starting to offer statements of apology, statement of reconciliation. An apology for what happened in residential schools. Apology was very specific to sexual and physical abuse. The government’s apology did not include anything related to loss of language, culture, or spirituality. “I’m survived at myself that I survived that, you know? I guess they couldn’t pierce my soul.”

To say we understand the flower is to do it a great injustice. Story about the muffins “to my fellow survivors I would say, there is hope. There is opportunity to come back. We are coming back. We are lost, not through any fault of our own, but lost through government imposed policy. We are coming back. We are rebuilding and restoring what we lost along the way. Be strong, be brave, most importantly, the creator is watching over us as we rely on that sense of hope.” Delaney sharp set out on a journey to walk across Canada - she collected stories. She felt a pain, but she said to herself, she does not have to carry that pain. - Delaney journeyed to newfoundland and marched in Ottawa - When asked what she wanted to say to her 12 children and many grandchildren,… she said this o Tell the truth and be kind to people. o I believe in kindness and the truth We didn’t fight that much in my family when we were kids, we didn’t fight. We were a good family.

Roy Thomas: artwork End scene: taking the muffins out of the oven Roy Thomas Garnet angecomb Ralph Johnson Alice littledeer (I could have used this help 40 years now. I’m old. I’m bitter. I cannot forgive.) Eulalia Michano Delaney Sharpe

“why don’t they just GET OVER IT?” - how do the ways that they were dealing with their trauma.. what does that speak to for the potentials of intergenerational trauma - how do they pass on the trauma?

Forgiving and apologizing is not necessarily a one time thing. Being sorry… you need to be willing to say it over and over again. Because the other party might need that....