The silence that followed Indian Residential Schools: sharing our stories and reconnecting oral history among Omushkego Cree family members in Ontario

Abstract

For many Indian Residential School (IRS) survivors, there is a pervasive silence surrounding their childhood experiences. The first research question, what childhood stories pre-existed Indian Residential Schools for Omushkego Elders and community members in Northern Ontario, unearthed childhood experiences in order to (re)animate oral storytelling and cultural practices within Omushkego communities in Ontario that were systematically eliminated/reduced for IRS survivors during their school years. The second research question, what Omushkego cultural knowledge and/or themes can we (re)learn and (re)claim from these stories and storytelling experiences with Omushkego Elders and community members, explored the various impacts of (re)claiming oral storytelling and cultural practices for IRS and intergenerational survivors from Northern Ontario, as well as examined common themes and storytelling practices among the collected Omushkego stories. The last two questions, what are some key outcomes for individual Omushkego community members when they have shared and (re)created oral storytelling and language cultural practices within our community, and how can Omushkego people identify and assert cultural reclamation in our lives and work as Omushkego people in Ontario, and by extension, Canada, highlighted cultural and identity affirmation through storytelling and confirms that healing opportunities can take place during these processes for Elders and community members who lost storytelling and cultural practices because of IRS experiences. This project included three Omushkego women who are from the Hudson Bay Lowlands and were born between 1933 and 1954, as well as me as an intergenerational survivor of Residential Schools and ongoing colonization. I used storytelling methodologies, Kovach’s (2010) conversational method, sharing circles and Indigenous epistemologies to guide my practical and ethical choices. I relied heavily on Indigenous ways of knowing and an Indigenous informed autoethnographic approach. Therefore, I am included within this document through my own stories, my reflections, and my actions which assert my Omushkego Cree identity right from the beginning through to the end. I am not alone and follow in the footsteps of Indigenous scholars who feel the need to situate our selves within research.