Survivors, Six Nations community members training to search residential school grounds

Residential school survivor John Elliott pushed a four-wheeled, black-and-yellow machine - similar in appearance to a lawnmower - across the grass at Chiefswood Park in Ohsweken on the bank of the Grand River.

It's just like pushing a plow," he said. I farmed at the Mush Hole ... We worked there all day long sometimes."

Elliott, now 84, is one of the survivors training to use ground-penetrating radar (GPR) technology, which will ultimately be used to search, acre by acre, the grounds of the former residential school from which he repeatedly ran away during his five-year stay.

He left the Mohawk Institute for good in 1952 at the age of 15.

Plans to search the grounds - now managed by the Woodland Cultural Centre - were announced in the summer after a survivors' secretariat was established. At the request of survivors, a multi-jurisdictional task force - comprising three police services and representatives from the province's death investigation system - was created, and a criminal investigation into deaths and missing children was launched.

The federal government has committed about $10 million dollars over three years for the search.

I'm happy about how it's going," said survivor Geronimo Henry, sitting on a folding chair amid a flurry of activity. We're having meetings every week, the survivors ... and we're kind of like directing these people."

Survivors' stories, historical documents and research are helping the team know where to use the GPR, a technology that uses radio waves to capture subsurface images, and can be used to collect data from soil, concrete and debris, among other substances.

It's based on their experience, their stories, what they've seen, what they felt, what they know," said lawyer Beverly Jacobs, associate dean with University of Windsor's faculty of law and the Indigenous human rights monitor for the secretariat.

On Wednesday, participants took turns pushing the machine, occasionally stopping to discuss technique or review the machine's monitor, which shows X and Y axes that mirror the grid measured and marked on the lawn.

The secretariat has two machines - one new and one old - which cost a combined $80,000 to purchase and upgrade.

The first cohort included 15 survivors, police officers and community members, who had their first practice session Wednesday after completing online training. The secretariat is aiming to train a second cohort this month.

They want to be part of the process," Beverly said. That's part of community, right, it's not an individual thing. That's part of who we are."

The secretariat is hoping to start searching ASAP and before the snow flies," she said.

The group is still in the process of planning when and how, specifically, the work will occur. This involves determining where survivors want to start, mapping the area and creating grids - each of which will be the recommended 10 metres by 10 metres.

It takes about an hour to do 100 square meters, so that means one acre will take approximately 40 hours on the ground," said lawyer and former Truth and Reconciliation Commission director Kimberly Murray, who is heading up the survivor-led search of the grounds. We have 500 acres."

The sheer size of the original property, part of which is now privately or municipally owned, poses a challenge - as does the terrain.

Lawn ... is great for ground-penetrating radar, but most of the property we're looking at brush area, right, so we're going to have to clear the area," she said. We're going to have to work with the community members and the traditional people about what we can do with each of the different parcels of land."

How much of the acreage they will examine using a GPR has yet to be determined.

There are other tools that we can explore using and we will get into that over the winter," she said.

Const. Arnold Jacobs, community services officer with Six Nations Police, said the practice session involved some trial and error.

Everybody's brainstorming how to do it best," he said.

A handful officers - who carefully measured and stretched string across the grid creating a straight lines for those pushing the machine to follow - were trained to operate the GPR.

We don't have trained eyes yet to know what those little anomalies or blips (are)," he said adding that the monitor is similar to that of a fish finder used to detect underwater activity. After this, we're sending the data to (the manufacturer). He's going to help us interpret it, to know what to look for."

Kate McCullough is a Hamilton-based reporter covering education at The Spectator. Reach her via email: kmccullough@thespec.com