Garden River First Nation used the 25th anniversary of National Indigenous Peoples Day to acknowledge victims of the residential school system that have yet to make it home.
A national movement to locate graves began after the Tk'emlups te Secwepec First Nation announced last month that ground-penetrating radar detected what are believed to be the remains of 215 Indigenous children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site.
Garden River First Nation Chief Andy Rickard told a small, socially-distanced crowd Monday that there have been conversations about searching the grounds of Shingwauk Residential School, as well as other cemeteries in the province, for the remains of Garden River members after hearing stories of potential unmarked graves in Sault Ste. Marie and other parts of Ontario from people in the community.
“They don’t deserve to be buried in these institutions, in the lands of these institutions, especially where so much historical trauma has been suffered by them, by the families and by the communities,” said Rickard. “That’s one of the things that we as a council, we as a community want to ensure - we want to bring our own kids back home here to our community so they can rest with their families and rest in their homelands.”
Barbara Nolan, language commissioner for the Anishinabek Nation, recalled her time as a student at Spanish Residential School on the north shore of Lake Huron, where she would get ‘strapped’ every time she spoke Anishinaabemowin. Nolan held on to her language, and does whatever she can to pass it on to others.
“We have to save that language however way we can. That’s what identifies us as Anishinabek,” she said.
Before people went to offer tobacco to the sacred fire behind the community centre, Rickard told the small crowd that National Indigenous Peoples Day is an opportunity to celebrate distinct Indigenous nations across Canada.
And that in Garden River First Nation, it’s a proud day to be Anishinaabe given the community's own rich history.
“We have our own languages, we have our own customs, we have our own traditions, our own ceremonies that make us unique and distinct from each other, and it’s about celebrating the beauty and diversity of each one of those nations,” Rickard said.
National Indigenous Peoples Day was originally introduced as National Aboriginal Day in 1996.