Michael Hopkins steps out from a teepee at N’Amerind Friendship Centre in London to speak in regards to the work he does as a well being and wellness coordinator.
A residential faculty survivor himself, he now sees it as his accountability to show youthful generations each the hardships and the teachings he discovered throughout his childhood experiences.
“So I tell my children what I learned, three things,” he continued. “One. I value food. Two. I’m up every morning, four o’clock in the morning, every morning. And three, I’ve always worked. So these were the three values that they taught me. This is what I teach my children. Three values. If I take you out to eat, you better eat it,” stated Hopkins as his face lit up with laughter.
Hopkins attended the Mohawk Institute in Brantford. Almost 100 deaths have been linked to the infamous residential faculty, additionally identified by its nickname, the Mush Gap.
He’s making ready to watch Reality and Reconciliation Day on Monday – a day to recollect lives misplaced at residential faculties.
“I’m glad it’s coming out because non-native societies can understand the things we had to go through and what we lost,” Hopkins defined. “Some people say we lost the language, we lost the ceremony, we lost to some. Maybe my parents did, and maybe I did. But it’s my responsibility to start making sure I started teaching and relearning,” he stated.
Residential faculty survivor Michael Hopkins, seen on Sept. 27, 2024. (Bryan Bicknell/ London)
Cody Groat is the grandson of residential faculty survivors, and now teaches Indigenous Research at Western College. He stated Reality and Reconciliation is not only about historic wrongs, but additionally points that proceed to plague Indigenous communities.
“I think a lot of people are going to treat it as a one-off event, but if we look at the region surrounding London, we have boil water advisories. And I think we need to recognize these as severe human rights violations. When we look at Truth and Reconciliation, it’s not something in the past, it’s something that’s severely impacting southwestern Ontario and this region right now, as well,” stated Groat.
A sequence of occasions are deliberate within the London area this weekend to mark the Nationwide Day of Reality and Reconciliation, together with an Indigenous market and music at Western Honest District, and a sequence of actions on the N’Amerind Centre.
