Lyna Hart, prominent member of Winnipeg’s indigenous community, passes away
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/01/2015 (3928 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A pillar of the Winnipeg indigenous community, Lyna Hart, 60, is being mourned this week.
Hart was a Cree nurse whose childhood in residential schools was one of two survivor’s stories in the haunting 2012 documentary film We Were Children.
She died in her sleep of a heart condition last weekend on a trip to Minneapolis.
Her son Blackwolf Hart-Bellecourt and brother Kevin Hart were escorting her body back to Winnipeg Wednesday.
A procession into the city is tentatively scheduled for about 6 p.m. tonight when it’s anticipated the hearse carrying Hart’s remains will reach the Perimeter Highway at Pembina Highway.
An all-night wake is planned for Thunderbird House on Main Street beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday, followed by a traditional indigenous ceremony to honour her life. The service is to begin Friday at noon. Her remains are to be cremated; her ashes scattered on sun dance grounds in North America and ceremony grounds she visited from Mexico to Japan.
Hart was remembered on countless posts on Facebook as a woman whose footsteps traced a map from the shameful history of residential school to the American Indan political rights movement of the 1970s and the vibrant indigenous cultural renaissance that followed it.
“The legacy of residential schools leaves many unanswered questions for so many of us,” Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Derek Nepinak said by email Wednesday.
“Oftentimes, the tragedies that unfolded for so many of our family members are left unsaid and healing is denied not only to the residential school survivor, but also the siblings and children of the survivor. This was not the case with Lyna Hart.
“She was brave, courageous and demonstrated tremendous strength in her commitment to step forward and tell her story. Her strength grew from her love and respect for our ceremonies, our cultural ways, our history and will stand as a testament to the resilience of indigenous peoples, families and our respective nations,” Nepinak said.