[Witness speaks in Cree]
I'll do a quick translation of what I've said: I'm honoured to be here to present in front of you and to also acknowledge my relatives in Eeyou Istchee, meaning the Cree territory of Quebec.
Also, to my friend Leo, thank you for sharing.
I'm glad Leo is here with me today, because I felt rather alone and rather afraid, probably, of sharing my personal story. I could read off a bunch of statistics from the documents we provided, but I'll leave that for your perusal.
As Leo shared with you, most of us are impacted by suicide in one way or another. I have had three family members commit suicide. My sister committed suicide through hanging approximately 15 years ago. It leaves a void within the family, within the heart. My 18-year-old niece through marriage committed suicide this summer. She leaves behind a child. My brother-in-law, who I grew up with, who I went to school with—he and I were friends right from childhood—committed suicide this past winter.
I'm really impacted by those suicides. The common thread amongst my family members is probably the drug and alcohol abuse and the sense of apathy that people feel within our communities. The apathy comes from the fact that a lot of these people see no way out.
In my early twenties, I too considered or contemplated suicide. I went to the point of taking some strong narcotics that I had been prescribed because I was suffering from depression. I was living in an abusive relationship. I stayed in that relationship for five years, and then I had another decade to try to break clean of that, because I too am a product of the residential school system.
I was made to feel unimportant, uncared for, and unwanted. I was considered to be the lowest of the low because I wasn't even allowed to speak my mother tongue in that facility. I was separated from my older sister when I entered the system because I had no desire to learn the English language. I suspect that my sister probably suffered some physical abuse for translating for me. From that separation when we were young like that, when we were in the system, that separation followed us into adulthood. It's only been a couple of decades since my sister and I reconciled our differences.
It was early on in our formative years while we were in the system that we were told through the actions of the supervisors or the people in authority who separated us, not to speak our language. Those were the messages given to children. I heard a gentleman a couple of days ago at a meeting where they were talking about addictions. He said from identity to destiny is where we travel, yet all the children who entered those institutions were robbed of their identity.
It's been a long hard road for most people. For our people to come back into balance and to take their rightful place in this society, they have to come back to the basics. They have to re-embrace who they are as first nations people, as Cree people. Reconciliation is more than apologies. Reconciliation is about taking your rightful place in society.
I think of my grandfather as I speak. My grandfather was 102 years old when he passed. He passed two years ago, and he talked always about the sense of autonomy that each and every one of us has. As first nations people, we were stripped of that autonomy because we were considered to be “less than” and our great white father would decide what was best for us, and that the residential schools were the best things for us.
I talked about my brother-in-law, my sister, and my niece. They were all struggling with addictions, and so was I when I contemplated suicide. I really believe the higher power, the Creator, was looking after me.
I don't come here in front of you with a rehearsed speech. I talk to you from here, from the heart, hoping that's where you'll be touched. When I was in my addictions I was operating from up here, from my head, and I was totally out of balance. It has been the Red Road, so to speak, ceremonies that have brought me back into balance.
For our people, we talk also about our land-based programs. In terms of the Grand Council of the Crees, the CNG, we are the first modern-day treaty and we are in a better position financially than our counterparts across the bay because they are governed under the Indian Act. Each of those communities that are governed under the Indian Act live in third world conditions. I appeal to you to help them as much as you can.
Our place is to re-embrace our culture and be proud once again of who we were, and of who we are to become.
I thank you for listening to me. Meegwetch.