Tried to run away

Chanie Wenjack was 12 when he and two friends ran away from their residential school in 1966. Some said that Chanie wanted to meet his dad. That he felt alone. Chanie’s sister thought he ran away after being sexually abused.

It was common for children to run away from the tough residential schools. Running away was dangerous. Those who were caught were severely punished. Those who managed to escape were often injured in accidents, or got frostbite and lost fingers and toes. Many died.

Doctor protested

Peter Henderson Bryce was a doctor who was sent by the government in 1907 to inspect the infamous residential schools for Indigenous children. He was shocked, and wrote a report saying that the overcrowded buildings were causing deadly diseases to spread rapidly among the underfed, worn-out children. The doctor also wrote a list of everything that needed to be done to save lives. But the government didn’t want to listen. Instead they gave the schools even less money. The doctor was forbidden from talking

Chanie and his friends walked for eight hours on the first day. They stayed the night with the friends’ uncle, who had a cottage in the forest. The next day they were to continue in different directions. The uncle advised Chanie to follow the train tracks and ask the railway workers for food on the way.

After a while it got colder and started snowing. Chanie was freezing in his thin jacket, and didn’t have any food, just a few matches in a glass jar. He survived for 36 hours.

When Chanie’s body was found by the railway track, it attracted a lot of attention in Canada. For the first time, the politicians were forced to carry out a proper investigation into the residential schools’ way of treating Indigenous children.

Attempt to eradicate

about what he’d seen and was later forced out of his job. He then wrote a book: ‘A national crime’, in which he blamed the government and the churches for the fact that children were dying. Yet still the government continued to send children to these dangerous schools for several decades.

Today, Peter Henderson Bryce is regarded as a hero. He stood up for children’s rights when hardly anyone else either wanted or dared to. Peter Hederson Bryce is an important role model for Cindy. She often visits his memorial and grave. Children can leave messages and drawings for the doctor in the orange mailbox.

After the country of Canada was created in 1867, the government established a law, the ‘Indian Act’ and a government o�ice for ‘Indian Affairs’ to control the Indigenous peoples. From 1920, the schools were compulsory for Indigenous children aged 5–15, and many Indigenous communities were emptied of children. For over 100 years, 150,000 children were taken to residential schools run by churches on behalf of the government. The idea was to teach the children the ‘white man’s way of being and thinking’. The children were given English or French names. They weren’t allowed to speak their own language or feel pride in their culture. Because the residential schools received far less money than other schools in Canada, there was a shortage of everything from food, to medicines and school books. Many children became ill and died. It was a way for Canada to try and wipe out, or eradicate the culture of the Indigenous peoples. But despite all the damage and sorrow they caused, they didn’t succeed. Indigenous peoples are still there, fighting for their rights and a better future.