The Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association is bringing together more than 200 survivors of Shingwauk Indian Residential School and family members from across Canada for a three-day reunion on the grounds of the former residential school site.
The Anglican-run school operated in Sault Ste. Marie from 1873 until its closure in 1970.
Sisters Jackie Fletcher and Shirley Horn — both of them survivors of Shingwauk — were on hand at Algoma University Saturday morning to kick off the event and welcome people from 85 communities who are taking part in the gathering, which will include a number of talking circles, presentations and activities throughout the long weekend.
“We, the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association, still have lots of work to do and passing on what we experienced from residential school and the residual effects to our children, our grandchildren and their families. They need to know us from that experience and why we do the things we do,” said Fletcher, vice president of Children of Shingwauk. “We are all here for a reason because we have commonalities, triggers, experiences, and we can understand where each of us is coming from and, of course, reconnecting with friends on many levels.”
Horn is a graduate of both Shingwauk Indian Residential School and Algoma University. She was also the university's first chancellor from 2015 to 2021.
“I look so forward to this gathering — I’m so excited about it because we get to be with each other again, and each of you come here for your own reasons, and I honour those reasons,” said Horn during the opening ceremonies. “We give our heartfelt thanks to the fact that we’re able to continue to work here.
“We’ve lost many of our friends in the past, but that hasn’t stopped us. For us, every day is another step in the journey. That’s what it is. If you think of your life as a journey, it’s just natural to go on to the next step, and you do the best that you can for that day — and I’m so grateful to be able to have served Children of Shingwauk all this time [and] Algoma University, and it was such an honour to have the privilege to do that.”
Algoma University President Asima Vezina took the time to acknowledge two Shingwauk survivors who were fixtures at the survivor gatherings on the former grounds of the residential school up until their deaths: Susie Kicknosway Jones of Walpole Island First Nation, who died in July 2019 and Garden River First Nation Elder Shirley Roach, who died in August of last year.
Vezina was wearing a skirt gifted to her by Roach’s family members after Roach's death.
“I wear this in honour of her today,” she said.
The head of Algoma University would later close her opening remarks with Jones’ final words.
“Her final words: we need to keep moving forward with great care for each other, regardless of the obstacles and external interferences. We need to put our differences aside and work together. We have the opportunity to fulfill the vision of Chief Shingwauk. We must work together,” Vezina said.
Anglican Church Archdeacon Harry Huskins is also a board member for the Shingwauk Education Trust, an organization which holds much of the land and financial assets of the former Shingwauk Indian Residential School and is dedicated to Indigenous and cross-cultural education.
He told the crowd assembled at Algoma University that “there has been an awakening in the consciousness of the Canadian people of the reality of what the schools were” over the past two decades.
Huskins applauded the efforts of the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association, which he says enabled the former site of Shingwauk Indian Residential School to be named a national historic site by Canada last year.
“The government has declared this to be a national historic site because of the importance of what went on here - but included in that is the importance of the work that the Children of Shingwauk has done,” Huskins said. “So on behalf, I guess, of all Canadians, we owe you a debt of gratitude.
"We owe this debt to those who have gone before you, and we owe you our thanks.”
A full agenda for the survivors' gathering can be found here.