Common experience payments well spent Carol’s

Letter

I wanted to say in this quarter’s Tusaayaksat what survivors of the residential school system spent the majority of their payments dollars on. We are hearing on radio and seeing in articles about too many of the negative issues that occured with the payments received. I am not saying that there are not any negative issues, but there were alot of positives that came out with the payment as well.

We now see alot of snow machines and trucks purchased, if not new, then second hand. Such equipment was not affordable to individuals prior to receiving payments. There were alot of relieved faces on people who can now pay outstanding bills that they could not afford prior to recieving their payments. One of the big stories from Aklavik is that because people received their money, the furniture at the local northern store ran out. Everything was sold out. Washers and dryers were purchased. Household appliances and plenty of groceries, thousands of dollars worth, flew off the shelves and left them quite bare by Christmas. I just wanted to make it known that it is human nature to look at the negative, forgetting about the positive that occurs on a day to day basis. We tend to forget to thank each other, pointing fingers instead.

We have to come together as a community, and help each other out. I hope this will help those who are not doing well. We should praise those who give even just a little helping hand to another person. That can go a long way. All of us might at some point do things that seem negative in somebody else’s eyes, we may be put down, but we need to keep our heads high and be proud of who we are, and where we come from. I would like to thank the community of Aklavik, each and everyone for being who you are and for sharing your smile. Let’s not forget our culture and our traditions. Let’s come together whether in times good or bad.

Carol’s call for her community to come together and applaud those who have spent their compensation wisely is echoed in all the other communities. Most people know what others in the community have done with their compensation. Many are excited for Inuvialuktun teacher Sandra Ipana, who is planning to build a bush camp for her family with her common experience compensation payment.

“Do I deserve compensation? I think I do,” she said, “It was eight years of my life, even though I’ll never run out of stories. We sit around with our friends and all we do is reminisce about Stringer Hall and laugh. I had some very good experiences there, but I think I deserve something. I won’t say I was happy 24-7, you know. There were times when we were very lonely.”

“There’s so many that are gone now that did go through a lot but they didn’t get anything. Maybe a lot of them had a hard life because they didn’t know how to deal with many issues: the anger and loss of culture, language and identity, the person that you are inside you.”

There are similar stories in Sachs Harbour, Ulukhaktok and Tuktoyaktuk. Stories of families sharing, travelling, buying necessities to make each other’s lives better. Elders going on holidays and pampering themselves.

Sarah Krengnekterk of Tuktoyaktuk observes, “there is a lot of drinking, but there is also a lot of other people who are spending their money in good ways.”

Annie Goose, who went through the residential school system and now counsels others, hopes survivors will be able to have more than just monetary relief.

She said, “For me forgiveness is important. I feel good after I did that in my own life. I don’t think I’ll be as strong today if I didn’t accept someone’s apology. To be honest, if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to be as strong today, and to enjoy life as much as I do now. My mum taught me, once I went back home, don’t repeat what others do to you, don’t take on the behavior they had. If someone did something wrong to you, reverse it. I learnt later on in life, what it meant.”

Out and about

By Markus Siivola

When Debbie Gordon-Ruben and Stanley Ruben received their residential school compensation money, they decided they were going to offer their children an experience. Paden, Dustin, Colton and Kynwill Gordon-Ruben were in for a treat.

First the family flew out of Paulatuk to spend six days in Edmonton. For two of the sons, this was their first time being outside of the Northwest Territories. The children roamed the huge West Edmonton Mall and splashed to their hearts’ content in the water park. They went to an IMAX theatre to enjoy wide views of the world from the larger-than-life screen.

Despite the big-city-awe and the fantastic fun, the brothers did feel a little twinge of homesickness towards the end. Home is home, after all.

Following the visit to Edmonto e family traveled to visit Debbie’s parents at their home in Aklavik, which the sons had not been able to do since 2004. The family reunited, the sons helped the grandparents with chores, tried snowmobiling out in the MacKenzie Delta, set trap lines and went ice fishing. “It was very nice,” said Debbie Gordon-Ruben in her office in Paulatuk, smiling brightly.

The boys’ experiences in Aklavik were as exhilarating as much as they were humbling. Compared to the wind-swept and barren tundra of Paulatuk, the snow in the delta is much softer. The boys, who were hardly acquainted with the mushy layers of snow, were properly introduced during their outings. Getting the skidoo stuck was a memorable experience.

The opportunity for the family to do these things together was as important as it was unique. It touched three generations at the same time. The journey was made possible by the residential school compensation money that the parents received, but that alone is not enough to make things happen. More importantly, it was made possible by good intentions, creativity and the desire to live fully.