New park on Mohawk Institute grounds a place to reconcile the truth

Taking advantage of last week's beautiful late-summer temperatures, members of the Mohawk Institute Residential School's Survivors' Secretariat teamed up with the owners of Kayanase - an ecological restoration and native plant business based in Six Nations - and representatives from Forests Ontario to plant 69 trees and shrubs at a memorial park on the former school's grounds.

Trees of eight different native species were planted in the field on Mohawk Road in Brantford to create a peaceful place to remember the children who attended the institute.

It's estimated that 15,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend the residential school between the early 1830s and 1970. Many - like those at other residential schools across Canada - suffered physical, mental and sexual abuse at the schools meant to assimilate them into Canadian culture. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission called the school system cultural genocide" in its 2015 report.

The Survivors' Secretariat has been organizing a search of the area using ground-penetrating radar in an attempt to locate unmarked burial sites. Earlier this month, they reported that analysis of documents connected to the residential school identified 97 children whose deaths are tied to the Mohawk Institute.

Roberta Hill, a Mohawk of Six Nations of the Grand River, is chair of the group creating the park and a survivor of the institute.

While digging a hole to plant one of the trees, Hill dug up an old marble - a swirl of white and orange glass. She says she remembers playing with marbles just like it on the concrete basement floor at the Mohawk Institute as a child.

We are here looking to make change in a good way and remember the children, it's really all about remembering the children in a peaceful space," Hill said.

Cathie Coward is a Hamilton-based photojournalist at The Spectator. Reach her via email: ccoward@thespec.com