'It's recent': Survivor reflects on last Sask. residential school closing 25 years ago
Warning: Some may find details in this story disturbing.
It’s been 25 years since Saskatchewan’s last residential school closed, but some are still healing.
Muscowequan Indian Residential School opened in 1889. It officially closed on June 30, 1997.
“Twenty-five years ago — it’s recent,” Geraldine Shingoose said.
Shingoose attended the school for nine years, between 1962-1971.
She remembers crying every September having to leave her parents and northern community to go to the government-run school.
“We knew that we wouldn't see them for a long time, and one of the huge impacts on me was the separation from our parents,” Shingoose said.
“They were the ones that were left behind and alone — they didn't have any children to take care of.”
Shingoose said she and her siblings weren’t allowed to go home for holidays and stayed at the school for 10 months of the year.
She said she experienced physical, emotional and sexual abuse at Muscowequan Indian Residential School.
“I have hearing loss from the blows and the hits and the punches to the head during school. Just randomly, we would get hit on the head,” Shingoose told CTV News.
Shingoose said she would be punished for speaking her Saulteaux language.
“I don't know my language. I don’t speak my language,” she said.
“When I went there, I only spoke Saulteaux. And when I came out, I only knew English.”
Federation of Sovereign Indian Nations (FSIN) Chief Bobby Cameron said the effects of residential schools follow not only the students but their children and grandchildren.
“There’s a misperception that it happened centuries ago. We’re still dealing with the aftermath and intergenerational trauma. It’s pretty recent,” Chief Cameron said.
“This is something that definitely is not going to be forgotten.”
At least 35 unmarked graves have been found at the Muscowequan Residential School.
The building has been saved from demolition and named a national historic site.
The school is located about 250 kilometres southeast of Saskatoon.
If you are a former residential school survivor in distress, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419
Additional mental-health support and resources for Indigenous people are available here.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Poilievre unrepentant over calling Trudeau 'wacko' as his MPs say Speaker should resign
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.