Why this Ontario residential school survivor keeps going back to the site of his suffering

BRANTFORD, ONT.-John Elliott was always running from the Mohawk Institute Residential School. He'd often escape on Christmas Eve, or really whenever he got the chance.

I ran away maybe 25, 30 times at least," he said. I'd go home for a couple of days."

But despite the childhood years he spent trying to put as much space as possible between him and the brick school building - located far from the street, nearly out of sight - Elliott, 84, now keeps coming back.

That's because he's one of many survivors of the school who voted to save the building in 2013. They wanted the site to be used for education and as proof of the horrors of the residential school system. Weekly meetings with other survivors have been purposeful for him.

Still, the choices around commemorating sites and deciding whether to keep a building like the former Mohawk institute, are complex and painful for survivors.

The former Mohawk institute is now part of the Woodland Cultural Centre, an Indigenous education and cultural centre, that has been under the ownership of the Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve since the school shuttered in 1970.

While Elliott and others sought to save the former school building, many would rather see these structures destroyed. Several of Elliott's friends from his time there won't go anywhere near the site, he said.

As Canada is finally going through the process of identifying hundreds of children's remains, buried in unmarked graves outside the sites of former residential schools, questions on what to do next with the locations, and how to mark and commemorate the sites are being discussed. Those discussions have been happening among Indigenous communities for decades.

There are 139 sites of former residential schools across the country, many with children's bodies under the earth nearby, waiting to be found.

The residential school system in Canada, which ran from 1828 to 1997, was created to assimilate Indigenous people by forcing children to attend schools" where they were not allowed to engage with their culture, were barred from speaking their own languages, and subjected to starvation, torture and sexual abuse. Thousands died as a result.

These are institutions where monstrous abuses took place, and where bodies are buried. When approaching commemoration of these sites, it's clear a plaque won't be enough to encompass the weight of what happened on the grounds, said Eve Tuck, a professor at OISE at University of Toronto. Tuck is Unangax and a member of the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island, Alaska.

It's important to see the limits of a colonial state like Ontario or Canada being the leader in the creation of plans of commemoration, and instead follow the lead and practices that Indigenous people have already been doing," she said. She added that Indigenous communities have already been making these choices since the schools closed.

The Woodland Centre is one example where funding had already been secured to turn the site into an education centre and restore the building, through its Save the Evidence campaign, which included a $1.4 million donation from Queen's Park in 2016. The target to restore the building is $23.5 million, and there's $11.5 million left to raise. While the former school building is closed for repairs, the site also hosts a museum and art gallery on Indigenous history, starting with Iroquoian and Algonkian prehistoric past up through the 21st century.

In June, Ontario announced it would provide $10 million to identify unmarked graves and for site commemoration. With 17 former residential school locations in the province, that amounts to less than $600,000 each, which is meant to cover a costly scanning to find gravesites along with engaging in a commemoration process.

The Mohawk school was about 20 kilometres from Elliott's mother's home on the Six Nations reserve near Brantford, Ont., so he'd try to get back to her whenever he could.

But running away meant he'd face brutal violence when he returned.

I'd come back and I'd still get a strapping ... whether you came back on your own or whether they caught you, you were going over the bench," he said.

Most of Elliott's memories at the institution involve being the target of violence by staff, who were from the Anglican Church of Canada. Almost daily, he was beaten, hit with a strap or punched.

Elliott, who now lives in Ohsweken, was taken to the Mohawk school from the Six Nations reserve when he was 10, alongside his older brother. He stayed for five years.

The school was nicknamed the mush hole" because they were forced to eat watery oatmeal for all their meals. Elliott recalls being punched in the stomach by a teacher when he tried to sneak in some chocolate under his shirt. At the school," there was rarely time at a desk, as Elliott and other children were forced to do farm labour for no pay on the grounds most of the time. He had to do extra schooling as an adult to make up for the lost years at the Institute.

And at the Mohawk school, he wasn't John. He was only called by a number the staff assigned him, which changed every year. For a while he was 72.

Whether the survivors of a school decide to do something similar to the Woodland Centre or to go in another direction - that $10 million in funding from the province isn't nearly enough when the funds are stretched across 17 sites, and may only be enough for a plaque or statue, said Tuck.

Commemoration seems to have a finality to it ... put a plaque on it and then it's over. But Indigenous practices of remember and grieving to me are more accurately reflective of the ongoingness of the grief and that we have been changed by this experience," she said. Those practices can involve ceremonies on the land, to show the physical and spiritual connection with the area.

Janis Monture, the executive director of the Woodland Centre, who identifies as a member of Mohawk Nation, Turtle Clan, said the survivors of the Mohawk school decided to reclaim the space, including choosing to build a memorial park next to the school to honour children lost.

Monture and the other centre staff took direction from the survivors who ultimately decided to retain the school site, which was not an easy choice, she said.

They could have torn this building down, but instead they put a cultural centre in it, because it is doing the exact opposite of what the institution was doing at that time," she said, adding that the building now focuses on retaining Indigenous cultures, including language. I want people to walk away understanding the resiliency of us as a people."

In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission included calls to action on commemoration. This included calling on the government to develop a national heritage plan for commemorating residential school sites along with installing a residential schools national monument in Ottawa.

In 2018, Ottawa allocated $23.9 million over five years toward creating a reconciliation framework for Canadian heritage and commemoration.

Last September, the federal government announced it has designated the residential school system as a national historic event. So far, only four residential schools have been designated National Historic Sites, and the process requires the sites to be nominated.

Canada must avoid a one size fits all" approach to commemorating these sites, as Indigenous people all over the country have already been making decisions around how to treat the former school sites, said Sean Carleton, an Indigenous studies professor at the University of Manitoba. Carleton, who identifies as a settler, is one of the few practising historians in Canada on residential schools.

Each community will approach the issue of commemoration and remembrance in a different way," he said.

For instance, in B.C. the former Kootenay Indian Residential School site in Cranbrook was converted to a golf course and casino, a process that was led by the Indigenous community. That's a site where 182 unmarked graves were just found using radar technology, the community of aqam announced on June 30.

Carleton also gives the example of the former Lower Post residential school on the Yukon-B. C. border that was demolished July 3; survivors and their families had asked for years for it to be torn down.

In Ontario, there is another former residential school site that has been kept for educational purposes. The Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre, which is part of Algoma University in Sault Ste. Marie, works with survivors to show the history of the institutions.

There's a gamut of options that different communities have chosen," he said. Canadians need to be very careful to not impose a particular way of remembering or commemorating these spaces, but ensure all these initiatives are community-led, and non-Indigenous people support communities."

If survivors want to tear a building down, they need to be listened to, said Carleton.

Addressing what occurred in the residential school system involves understanding their purpose. Then it becomes clear how insufficient a plaque or a statue is, explained Tuck.

Think of residential schools not as schools, but as death programs that were intent on destroying Indigenous life and Indigenous relationships with the land," she said. How we move forward need to address those deeper consequences."

That means commemoration should be seen as fluid and ongoing, said Tuck. It should also mean responsibilities around reconciliation and the healing of Indigenous people as these schools have deeply hurt proceeding generations. It means allocating enough funding to end boil-water advisories, and ensuring all Indigenous people have access to free education, she explained.

It's the grief that's permanent, rather than a marker, or a plaque," she said.

As for John Elliott, he wants to be around long enough to see the former residential school building open for tours in 2024 - and for the site to scan for remains, which is in the process of starting this year.

He'd also like to see more opportunities for survivors to speak to students outside of the former residential school sites, so their memories can be shared with children more often.

I think they should get the survivors and go to the schools more. I really would like to see the survivors have more input on it," he said. We're the ones who went through it."

INSIDE THE WOODLAND CULTURAL CENTRE MUSEUM

While the former site of the Mohawk Institute Residential School is closed for repairs and will open for tours in 2024, next door is a museum and art gallery.

The Woodland Cultural Centre operates the museum tours, which are open to the public for self-guided visits currently under COVID-19 restrictions.

We want to bring as many people through ... to educate, to tell the story from our perspective not what's written by other people, but what's being told by our people," said Janis Monture, the executive director of the centre.

The Star toured the museum that features over 35,000 artifacts in its collection and begins with Iroquoian and Algonkian prehistoric past, straight through to the 21st century.

The museum takes care to ensure that the perspective of the history is not through the lens of white settlers who colonized Canada. For instance, it explains on a display that Algonkian and Iroquoian Nations did not feel inferior to Europeans and taught them how to survive on the land. There are also displays that shows artifacts found in the walls of the Mohawk school.

But while the museum shows the terrible impact of colonization on Indigenous peoples, it also ensures the successes and triumphs are front and centre. There are sections on achievements in music, arts, culture and sports.

Showing those successes is important to reclaiming a space that once was the site of a residential school, said Monture.

That's key for us ... we are still here and we are still actively involved in our communities and practising our culture."

Olivia Bowden is a Toronto-based staff reporter for the Star. Reach her via email: obowden@thestar.ca