Silenced no more: Indigenous languages celebrated at site of former residential school

Languages once suppressed at the Assiniboia Residential School are now prominently displayed at the site.

More than 100 people gathered Tuesday at 621 Academy Rd., on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, for a ceremony unveiling three plaques near the former school.

The plaques are written in Anishinaabemowin, Anishininimowin, Cree, Dakota, Dene, English and French — the languages spoken by children who attended the school.

“It’s very important, and it can also be quite emotional,” said Darian McKinney, a board member for the Assiniboia Residential School Legacy Group, whose grandparents were residential school survivors.

“Growing up, (those languages) were something that was non-existent. My grandparents, specifically, did not teach my father the language because of the threat of being taken away by residential schools. Just knowing that’s why I don’t know the language is heartbreaking.”

McKinney said his grandparents’ first language was Anishinaabemowin.

“Going to (Sandy Bay Residential School), it was forbidden,” he said. “And they didn’t speak it after that, although they’ve definitely reclaimed it and speak it more now.”

The Assiniboia Residential School operated from 1958 to 1973 in a repurposed building that had served as a children’s home and later a veterans’ hospital.

Run by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Grey Nuns of Montréal, it was federally funded and part of Canada’s policy of forced assimilation. Inspections in the 1960s cited overcrowding and unsafe conditions.

Former Senator Patricia Bovey stressed how vital it is to pass knowledge from one generation to the next.

“Just remember, that the knowledge of our cultures is passed down through generations, from grandparent to parent to child,” Bovey said. “We are part of that passage.”

She implored Canadians to listen.

“Let’s see the truths and absorb the meaning of the feather. Let us make the right decisions,” she said.

The school is one of more than 2,200 places in Canada designated through Parks Canada’s National Program of Historical Commemorations, a process driven by public nominations.

“It’s important for Canada to take to heart our responsibility to educate ourselves as Canadians about the Indian residential school system,” senior vice president of operations of Parks Canada Andrew Campbell said.

The residential school system removed Indigenous children from their cultures and families, causing deep harm and has been recognized by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as cultural genocide.

Assiniboia was the first urban residential high school in Manitoba for Indigenous youth. Over its 15 years of operation, more than 1,025 students from roughly 85 communities across Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Quebec attended the school.

“Our relatives and ancestors have a fire spirit within them,” said Toni Kipling, executive director of the legacy group. “This fire provided the strength, resilience and love to endure the pain and injustices while they were uprooted and forced to attend residential schools. It is because of their bravery and strength, we are still here.”

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Liberal MP Ben Carr said he grew up only a few blocks from the former school but knew little about it.

“Residential school history was not widespread … and certainly we did not have knowledge of places like this existing in our own backyard,” Carr said. “We were not exposed, as white kids in this part of town, to Indigenous communities, never mind understanding the past in the present.”

He said his young niece, who attended the event, will learn what he did not.

“The importance of places like this, the sign that remains here, the memorial, the commemorative plaques being placed here today, all play a very critical role in ensuring that kids like my neice, and even adults not familiar with this history, can move forward with a deeper understanding of where we’ve come from and where we have to go,” he said.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca

Scott Billeck
Reporter

Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade’s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.  Read more about Scott.

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