First and foremost, I'd like to state: I take no pride or joy from keeping track of our children being uncovered. I'm not eager to see these numbers rise. I feel sick to my stomach every time we have to place more flags, and update you guys. I do this for myself; as my family is directly affected by Genocide Prisons and the legal human trafficking that we now call the "60's scoop". So although I take no joy in this, it is absolutely necessary. Our society has ignored this and silenced our elders for far too long.
When we put up the initial 1,400 orange flags at the Manitoba Legislative Building, we had no idea of the impact this would have on our community. We've been seeing our memorial spark up age appropriate conversations about why they're there and what they represent. We've had children talk their parents into helping us straighten them out and replace faded flags. There's so much hope in our youth.
My Grandmother Louisa Sanderson was a survivor of Residential "School". The cycle continued with my mom and her siblings who were all taken. My Granny had 13 children with an age gap of 20 years between the eldest and youngest. The older children went to Residential "School", my mom and her younger siblings were taken in the 60's scoop. I can't speak for the others, but my mom was placed with a pedophile; she was forbidden from speaking her language. After 2 years, her mom regained custody but the damage was already done. My Granny only spoke Ojibwe and my mom and her siblings only spoke English; they were all so ashamed of their identity and culture, that my Granny and Grandpa had to learn English to communicate. That means that my mom's 2nd language is English, but it's the only language she knows.
Now there are many misconceptions about Residential "Schools", so for those of you who have no idea what really happened, let's break it down. These institutions were far from schools. They were genocide prisons and they were mandatory for all children aged 5 - 16 years old. Often they would arrange marriages for the kids before they were freed, to continue the assimilation and indoctrination of our children.
So many children died at the genocide prisons at the hands of those tasked to watch over and teach them. We are currently uncovering their bodies from mass and unmarked graves all across Turtle Island (North America). They often say that the last Genocide Prison closed in 1996 but that's false. Marieval Indian Residential "School" itself, closed in 1997. This is where 751 children's bodies were uncovered. Many records have been destroyed.
Many people will say "we don't know how these children died" or "these children died of disease". It is true that disease and illness were prevalent but I would like to remind the people that our survivors speak of sick children being purposely placed in dormitories that housed healthy children, others were threatened with being placed in dormitories with sick children if they didn't behave; that is called biowarfare and it is a war crime. Don't even get me started on why men and women of the cloth would bury innocent, baptized children in unconsecrated land and hide the death from the child's family.
So with that said, I will continue transforming my visions into real life for all of you. This is so much more than a trend. This is our family. I really do hope that our work helps other desensitized people, to grasp what's truly happened and what continues to happen in Canada. Every Child Matters. Every single one.
Below you'll find links to our sources in regards to our Genocide Prison Death Toll.
