Totem Raising, Potlatch, ROAD TO HEALING TOUR in Alaska

 

National Native News

October 23, 2023 By Antonia Gonzales 

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U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) was greeted with a standing ovation at the Alaska Federation of Natives, when she addressed the convention Friday.

From subsistence to Native veterans, Sec. Haaland touched on a range of topics.

But one issue on this trip to Alaska will get a lot of her attention.

On Sunday, Sec. Haaland held a listening session in Anchorage on the trauma caused by Native boarding schools.

“We must reckon with the past to address the injustices we still face, because we know that intergenerational trauma connects so much of what hurts us.”

Sec. Haaland has been traveling the country on what she calls a “Road to Healing Tour,” taking testimony on the boarding school era about the damage it caused.

“My grandma used to share stories about this trauma with me about how a priest showed up one day in her village, took her and other children away from her parents and families, and sent them on a train to a Catholic boarding school, when she was only eight years-old.”

Sec. Haaland’s listening session was held at the Alaska Native Heritage Center and followed by the raising of a healing totem.

The Heritage Center has been investigating church records to learn more about how Alaska Natives were impacted.

Benjamin Jacuk (Kenaitze Indian Tribal Member), one of the researchers, says his grandfather is a boarding school survivor, which got him interested in learning more.

“The road to healing is going to be a very, a very emotional event, because it’s a lot of people, actually telling their stories. Some maybe before, some for the first time. One thing you know, is never leave people in that space.”

The healing totem is the work of two Haida master carvers – Joe and T.J Young.

An elder developed the concept for the design.

The totem pole depicts mother bear, who is holding two cubs, while the father, in human form, sits above her, embedded in a Raven’s tail.

Two children rest comfortably in Raven’s ear.

The totem raising, which was followed by a potlatch, was open to the public, but the Road to Healing Tour was closed to the general public, to give boarding school survivors and their famiies some privacy.

Fact Checking | MASS GRAVES

Recently a politician from a village in Prince Edward Island displayed an offensive sign on his property in which he proclaimed there is a “mass grave hoax” regarding the former Indian Residential Schools in Canada. Although many have called for him to resign, he is just one of many people who subscribe to this false theory.

A hoax is an act intended to trick people into believing something that isn’t true. Commentary that a “hoax” exists began circulating in 2021 around the time of public announcements from First Nations across the country that — through the use of ground penetrating radar and other means — the remains of Indigenous children are suspected to be in unmarked graves at or near some former residential schools.

Commentators circulating allegations of a “hoax” contend journalists have misrepresented news of the potential unmarked graves, circulating sensational, attention-grabbing headlines and using the term “mass grave” to do so. They also contend some First Nations, activists or politicians used this language for political gain — to shock and guilt Canadians into caring about Indigenous Peoples and reconciliation.

Like the councillor in P.E.I., many people — in Canada and internationally, fuelled partly by misinformation from the far-right — are accepting and promoting the “mass grave hoax” narrative and casting doubt on the searches for missing children and unmarked burials being undertaken by First Nations across Canada.

Rapporteur Tanya Talaga speaks at the first National Gathering on Unmarked Burials: Supporting the Search and Recovery of Missing Children, in Edmonton, on Sept. 14, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson 

It appears that some journalists and commentators misunderstood a large number of potential or likely unmarked graves for mass graves in late May/June 2021. By September, denialists were misrepresenting the extent of media errors to push the conspiratorial “mass grave hoax” narrative online.

Our research shows that the “mass grave hoax” narrative hinges on a misrepresentation of how Canadian journalists reported on the identification of potential unmarked graves at former residential school sites in 2021. And we hope our report sparks a national conversation about how important language is when covering this issue.

Media needs to be precise with language and also acknowledge its errors (and avoid future ones), or clarify details in a way that feeds truth, empathy and more accurate reporting — not denialism, hate and conspiracy.

 

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