What Survivors have kept

"We often focus on what was taken from us. Lately, I've been thinking about what was kept."

For Karen Courchene, Grandmother-in-Residence at the Indigenous Student Centre (ISC) in Migizii Agamik, that reflection sits at the heart of this year's National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Residential schools sought to erase Indigenous ways of knowing and being. Despite those efforts and the harms and injustices inflicted on First Nations, Inuit and Métis people, many families and communities held on to their traditional teachings, stories and ceremonies.

As Courchene thinks about the medicines her mother carried, the language her parents protected and the stories that survived in her family, she is reminded that September 30 is not only about acknowledging harm. It is also about recognizing resilience. 

Now entering her third year as Grandmother-in-Residence with ISC and drawing on decades of experience as an educator from Sagkeeng First Nation (and now a band member with Peguis First Nation), creating spaces for others to reflect is deeply personal.

For Courchene, that means taking time to pause and remember everything that has been carried forward.

"This was my family's life. This was my community's life," she says. "Residential schools are not just a piece of history to me."

Growing up in Sagkeeng, Courchene attended the Fort Alexander Indian Residential School from kindergarten to Grade 3. The school operated from 1905 until 1970.

As a Survivor, she carries memories and stories of the widespread abuse carried out in those schools.

“There's a lot of dark history,” says Courchene. “And I believe that if you don't bring the darkness to light, it festers and grows and becomes toxic. That’s why it’s so important to tell the stories.” 

Finding her story

Courchene's road to understanding her own identity was a long one.

When she arrived at university as an 18-year-old student, she says she had absorbed many of the stereotypes and narratives about Indigenous Peoples that surrounded her.

"I would separate myself,” recalls Courchene. “Like, ‘Yes, that's true about First Nations people, but not me, I'm different.’ But I wasn’t different.”

When she was 22, she reached a turning point: she realized she didn’t know who she was.

That realization launched a lifelong journey of attending ceremonies, participating in healing circles and reconnecting with Indigenous teachings.

Since then, she says she has been reclaiming her story, and it's a lesson she now shares with students across campus.

"I’m always telling them, ‘Find your story, because that’s what is going to root you,’” she says. “And once you’re rooted in your story, no one can take that away from you. The narrative that Canada has built can’t define you.”

Students, she believes, come to university searching for that connection.

"That's why they come to ceremony. That's why they come to Elders. They're looking for something more."

Courchene says that knowing her own story changed everything.

“All of a sudden, my perspective started shifting, she says.” Everything that my ancestors kept for me, everything that was beautiful about the way they saw the world – it rooted me here. It taught me I belong on this land.”

That sense of belonging is part of what inspires Courchene to focus on what was kept.

Holding onto language, teachings and stories

As a child, she watched her mother prepare traditional medicines for community members seeking help. At the time, Courchene admits she did not fully appreciate the knowledge being passed down. 

"I had fully bought into the idea that Western medicine was superior," she says. "Now, I understand differently."  

She has also come to appreciate just how much her parents were able to protect and preserve. Even everyday acts now carry new meanings. 

Because Courchene and her younger siblings were able to attend day school rather than live at residential school, her mother kept their hair long and braided it each morning before they left for school.

Today, Courchene sees that care as more than a routine.

"That's an act of resistance," she says. "You're not going to touch my daughters' hair. I'm going to lovingly take care of it, and I'm going to teach them how to take care of it."

As an adult, Courchene began researching Indigenous teachings and family histories. Along the way, she realized stories embedded in her family stretched back generations, even if their meanings had been obscured.

"It has been a journey of uncovering what was always there," she says.

A living reminder

That message is at the heart of Rocking Truth and Reconciliation: Sharing our truth, one rock and story at a time, an initiative created by Courchene that invites members of the UM community to Migizii Agamik on weekday afternoons from Sept. 21-29 to paint rocks in the theme of truth and Reconciliation.

"Rather than me standing in front of people and talking, it's an opportunity for people to reflect for themselves," says Courchene. "I’ll give you a rock and then then you can design something that’s meaningful to you."  

The rocks will be placed along the pathway leading up to Migizii Agamik, creating a visual reminder of the ongoing work, remembering, learning and healing.

"What was kept?" Courchene asks.

The answer, she says, can be found in the teachings, medicines, languages, stories and relationships that Indigenous families carried forward for future generations.