Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation Dwayne Martin opened the Truth, Honour & the Way Forward exhibit at the Tourism Tofino Visitor Centre on Oct. 8 with a chant called Winds of Change are Coming.
The exhibit is available to the public until Oct. 19 and showcases the work of Ucluelet Secondary (USS) students, including poetry, screen printed orange shirts and investigations into the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action. It also features the latest exhibit from the Legacy of Hope Foundation called A National Crime.
“It’s been 30, 40 years, and our people are still really healing. Tin Wis Christie closed in 1983,” said Martin.
“It’s still pretty fresh. It still impacts our people even though some generation today didn’t go. They are impacted by it because of how their parents were treated. Those schools were designed to take us away from our family unit. They were designed to break us from our culture. They were designed to take away our language,” he said.
Nuu-chah-nulth artist Elizabeth George spoke about her father who went to Alberni Residential School. Choking back tears, she told the intimate crowd at the opening event that her father paid dearly for speaking his language.
“They raped him. They beat him. They shaved his head. It brings back memories hearing those poems. I wanted to cry. Those poems are true. They really hurt my dad,” said George.
“My dad was broken. For years he was broken,” she said.
George went on to share that her auntie Grace George took everything her dad knew before he passed away and now she’s fluent in Nuu-chah-nulth language.
“She works at the school,” said George.
Martin said it’s especially hard for men to talk about being molested.
“Because people say, ‘oh he’s going to be a molester’. That’s one of the worst feelings for a man to carry. Our men, when we talk about it, is usually with anger. It’s a lot of recovery,” Martin said.
Creative writing teacher Heather Hendry and two USS students read poems from the high school’s latest poetry book, which features 20 poems and artwork by USS students. The poems honour the experiences of residential school survivors and can be purchased at the visitor centre.
