Reclaiming Shingwauk Hall exhibit gets financial boost from feds (3 photos)

The federal government is providing the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre with $169,500 for the Healing and Reconciliation Through Education program at Algoma University.

The funding - announced by Sault Ste. Marie MP Terry Sheehan Friday at Algoma University - will go towards the creation of the centrepiece gallery of the Reclaiming Shingwauk Hall exhibition, which is being described as an object and artifact driven storytelling space.

“What it allows us to do, in partnership, is to complete the next phase of the healing and reconciliation project that we have underway through the leadership of the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association and the residential school centre,” said Algoma University President Asima Vezina during the announcement.

“This is really going to be that centrepiece gallery, and it is going to be a participatory art space,” said Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre researcher and curator Krista McCracken. “It’s actually going to have six pods that focus on different aspects of Indigenous cultural heritage, and those pods will be movable, so that we can still use this space for gatherings like this, for ceremony, for events on campus.”

“It will be a space that we’re inviting input from the community, as well as guidance from Indigenous artists and makers to see it come to fruition.”

“Part of our dream as Children of Shingwauk [Alumni Association] when we first organized was to be recognized throughout this building, and to pay homage to the people that have passed on - and the children that have passed on - through this hall,” said Algoma University Chancellor Shirley Horn.

Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association Vice-President Irene Barbeau says that for her, it’s been a 44-year journey as a survivor of the building that she called home for six years.

Barbeau was invited by Vezina to take part in a two-day meeting at Algoma University that is intended to bring all stakeholders of the healing and reconciliation project together.

“For me as a survivor, this auditorium was the place that found joy in when I was here for six years,” she told people gathered in Shingwauk Auditorium for the funding announcement. “There was joy in the other parts of the building, but this auditorium was where I enjoyed my stay here the most, because it was a time where I can forget about the regimental life I was living here, and that I could be myself here as a child here.”

The funding announced Friday will pay for the fabrication of the actual exhibit, in addition to funding elders and residential school survivors to act in advisory roles.

“The Reclaiming Shingwauk Hall space is the first survivor-driven exhibition in a former residential school building, and that is in the world,” McCracken said. “It is so significant and special and that way.”