WARNING: This story contains references to the Indian residential school system.
With the repatriation of his remains, Percy Onabigon is finally at home and meets his late brothers in Like #58 First Nation, decades after he separated from them, put himself in a residential school and buried more than 1,200 kilometers of the Ojibway community in the northwest of Ontario.
Last week, the remains of Percy were escorted by the truth of the Provincial Police of Ontario, the truth and reconciliation of the Ontario Police to the Like #58, where his life was held and was buried in his last place of rest.
His family’s fight to repatriate his remains in the first nation, where he was born for many decades. After spending time at the Indian residential school of St. Joseph in Thunder Bay, he was sent to several hospitals and institutions because he was epileptic and partially paralyzed.
His family never told where he was sent or what was him after he was removed from St. Joseph’s. But after years of research and defense, Percy’s niece, Claire Onabigon, found him in a cemetery in Woodstock, Ontario. He had died at 27 years of tuberculosis at the Ontario hospital.
The final chapter of the repatriation of the remains of Percy was advanced to the National Day of September 30 for truth and reconciliation.
Celebrating Percy’s life
“He must be saying: ‘They found me. I am at home now,” Claire said as family and friends, they honored him on Thursday through a pipeline, speeches, a presentation about his life and prayers, with photos of him and his relationships on display.
His coffin was adorned by a bouquet of flowers with orange ribbons with the names of his brothers. The next day, in a ceremony of the Catholic Church, the hymns were sung in Anishinaabemowin when a priest stained him with traditional medications.
In the long lake cemetery, people placed tobacco in Percy’s tomb before being buried.
Percy, who was born on July 17, 1938, had a twin brother Harold who died in childhood. There were also two other brothers and six sisters.
Percy was Eight years when he was separated from his family without his knowledge or consent.
Your family He exhumed his remains this spring.
Claire I spent years fighting funds to repatriate their remains, Receive support from several community leaders and the Anishinabek nation. The family was denied federal funds through the Community Support Fund for Children of Residential Schools Because he died as an adult instead of a child while attending St. Joseph’s.
“In cases where the Federal Government cannot provide funds through the Community Support Fund, relations of relations between indigenous crowns seek other financing alternatives, even with indigenous services of Canada and/or the province or relevant territory”, a spokesman for the Department of Crown Relations of the Federal Government told CBC News in an email on Thursday.
The past fall, the members of the Ontario government met with the family in Like #58 and agreed to pay $ 45,000 to bring the remains of Percy home.
“It was not a great decision, it was obvious that we should and participate,” Greg Rickford, Minister of Indigenous Affairs of Ontario and economic reconciliation of the first nations told CBC News.
Long Road’s house
Percy’s trip itself took more than 1,800 kilometers through the province, from the cemetery in Woodstock, to the Forensic Pathology Service of Ontario in Toronto for an autopsy and DNA analysis, to Everest Funeral Chapel in Thunder Bay and then northeast to Like Lake #58.
“The pain, sadness and loneliness that Percy passed is real,” Claire said. “You should have asked: ‘Where is my mother? Where is my dad? Where is my sister? Where are my brothers?’ Every day they wake up and think: ‘Is today they come to look for me?’ “
Elder Jocelyn Banank, who was born the same year as Percy, said he remembers having played with him before being sent to St. Joseph’s.
“He was like a brother for me. He didn’t even know he left,” said Bananish. “I just missed it.”
Support for other remint
Percy’s story was shared for the first time in Kimberly Murray’s report Truth sites, sites of consciousness While it was the special independent interlocutor of Canada for missing children and unmarked graves and burial sites associated with Indian residential schools.
Murray, who is now a national scholar of indigenous legal studies at the University of Queen in Kingston, has long asked the provincial and federal legislation that describes government obligations for repatriation, each with attachments.
“Percy’s experience and his family’s experience are interesting to consider due to the interrelation between federal and provincial governments, and the fact that there were so many institutions that touched Percy’s life,” said Murray, a member of Kanesatake Mohawk nation.
Rickford said Ontario has “led the road at the national level” with his support to those affected by the Indian residential school system, particularly through the Community Participation Fund of the Indian Residential School.
Sol Mamakwa is a member of the Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Kiiwetinoong and member of Kingfisher Lake First NationAnd it was at the repatriation ceremony last week for Percy.
Mamakwa, a residential school survivor, said that the only other repatriation ceremony he had attended was for Charlie Hunter, 13. He died in 1974 while attending St. Anne’s residential school in Fort Albany.
Mamakwa said he would also like provincial and federal repatriation laws to establish that they align with the United Nations Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples.
“That is easier for families who want to take their children home.”
Judy Desmoulin, Chief of Long Lake #58 First Nation, has supported the Onabigones throughout Percy’s trip and said he hopes that others can get out of the family’s experience.
“Hopefully, for what we have done, we have paved a bit that way,” said Desmoulin. “Now that we know what should be done, so we can share that information, so I hope you accelerate the process so that others do what we have done.”
‘Never lose hope’
It was not easy for the Onabigones to talk about what happened to Percy.
They have received messages from the denial of the residential school that experts say. minimize, excuse or misrepresent facts about the damage caused by the Indian residential school system.
“It is really important that we share the information we know about the facts and the evidence and records we have,” Murray said. “It shouldn’t be that families have to share their family history and experience with Canadians, it is very personal. It is very traumatic for them.”
The family faced many challenges that sailed through the archive documents to discover what happened to Percy, which said the great head of the nation Anishinabek, Linda Debassige, is a common experience.
“If you talk to anyone who has conducted a genealogical investigation of the first nations, he will listen to the chronic spelling of indigenous names, the Anglicization of our names, the many incorrect or non -coincidental years for deaths, births and death marriages for people who live or not certified for those who have died and the mixture of the reports of the Cusas or those named of Cusins. Debsige.
“All this demonstrates the complete lack of care and consistency that was destined to record our people. Our records were not recorded by us; they were recorded by the same people who considered us inferior, so the records will reflect that and will not tell the whole story.”
Anna Betty Achneepineskum, a great deputy chief of the nation of Nishnawbe Aski and a member of the first nation of Marten Falls, a first Anishinaabe nation in the north of Ontario, said that sharing stories such as Percy and listening to the testimonies of community members helps to fight denial while empowering communities.
“Until that moment comes, where more people accept the history of Canada, then perhaps the people of the first nations will not face the systemic racism they do in this country,” said Achneepineksum. These are our homelands and yet we are still marginalized by the systemic racism that exists. “
Despite the obstacles that the family has faced, Claire said that bringing Percy home was a promise he made to his mother, who raised her with the mentality that “if you say you are going to do something, you have to do it, and you have to do it well.”
For others who seek to repatriate their loved ones lost, she said: “I hope he doesn’t take everything he will take us.
“The message for them would be, never lose hope.”
A line of crisis of the Indian National Residential School has been established has been established to provide support to former students already affected. People can access emotional services and crisis reference by calling the national crisis line 24 hours: 1-866-925-4419.
Mental health advice and crisis support are also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the HOPE for Wellness Direct Line at 1-855-242-3310 or by online chat www.hopeforwellness.ca.
