Living Healing Quilt Project
Promoting Healing – One Stitch at a Time

Here’s a summary of all the quilt blocks for the Living Healing Quilt Project.

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Living Healing Quilt Project
Promoting Healing – One Stitch at a Time

This picture represents our grandfather (Raksotha) Kaheroton Daniel Peter Nicholas who was born on April 1, 1901 and raised in Kanehsatake Mohawk Territory, in Quebec. He, and his two brothers, Mackay and Ernest, were sent to Shingwauk Industrial School in the early 1900s. His younger brother, Ernest, died there and was buried at an undisclosed site at Shingwauk; he was 7 years old.

Our grandfather told us stories of his time at Shingwauk. Digging for food in the garbage, working very hard on the farm and academics playing a very small part. When rules were broken, he said students were taken to the basement, tied up to the rafters or pipes and whipped.

He wanted to go back to visit the schools before his death in 1967 but our parents didn’t have the money to go. He would cry a lot when he spoke of Shingwauk. Maybe if we could have taken him back there, our family would now know where his brother was buried.

Our memories of Raksotha:

He was a wonderful Raksotha, who was kind, stubborn and made axe handles and oars on a sawhorse that he made. He would then take them to Lachute, Quebec or Cornwall, Ontario, where he would sell them. He could cook as good as Aksotha Lena Gabriel Nicholas, his wife who also attended Shingwauk. Oddly, their names do not show up on the registry of students but they were all there.

Daniel and Lena had two daughters, Virginia Brown of Akwesasne and Thelma David of Kanehsatake; sadly, their two sons died, one at 9 months old.

This picture is in his memory.

The Grandchildren.
August 29, 2008

Living Healing Quilt Project
Promoting Healing – One Stitch at a Time

The eagle represents freedom and sees very far. The feather gives us guidance and we use it in our prayers. The yellow circle represents the light we look for and the blue represents the Circle of Life.

Living Healing Quilt Project
Promoting Healing – One Stitch at a Time

I know that Inukshook is not in my teaching. I’m Oneida, but each time I see one of those, I see and think of a lot of positive things! Plus I really like the snow at night time.

Living Healing Quilt Project
Promoting Healing – One Stitch at a Time

By: Shirley Ida Williams nee Pheasant

This is my story of how I maintained my resilience while I was at St. Joseph’s Residential School in Spanish, Ontario.

My father used to give me $2.00 at the beginning of September and that $2.00 used to keep me in money until April, then I would say that I was broke.
At the school we had store hours once a month if we all behaved. The store had candies, chocolate bars, and jelly beans. Jelly beans were the cheapest to buy because one could buy 5 jelly beans for a penny! So I would get jelly beans for my comfort food.

Whenever my true friends or I got sick or lonely or if we got a scolding or strapping for speaking our language, one of the things that I did was get my bag of jelly beans. I would get my true friends together and we would gather outside somewhere and then we would circle around each other and share one jelly bean. This jelly bean had to be eaten and bitten equally by us! None would bite more than the other, but shared equally to wipe away our hurts.

After sharing our jelly bean, then we could wipe our hurts or loneliness and we would become strong again and able to laugh and to go on functioning in the school. We would tell ourselves that this is just for a time till we would be 16 years old and we would be free to leave here!

I used embroidery work to sew my piece. There are three girls that I remember that I was close with, Mary Ann, Mary Elizabeth and Louise from Gchi-minising. One of the girls has tears dripping from her face. The dresses we wore were grey or sometimes blue. The bag that I am holding is full of jelly beans and like I said if one of my friends got hurt or lonely we would get together to share this candy. The lines represent the sharing of hurt, the strength we had, and how we helped to nurture one another. From the sharing, we were able to survive and give caring to each other.

The fence represents how we were locked up and the broken green line represents the lack of kindness, love and emotional support that we needed in order to grow mentally well. The yellow lines also represent the spiritual growth we got from each other in order to go on within the institution.

The school was gutted by fire in the 70’s but the shell is still standing including the statue of St. Joseph.

Living Healing Quilt Project
Promoting Healing – One Stitch at a Time

My name is Kimberley Dunstan, I am Nlakapamux from Lytton British Columbia. My parents are Malcolm and Linda Dunstan, they attended St. Georges Residential School. I am inter-generational and I have been impacted by the Residential School experience.

This poem was inspired through the duration of the pre-CEP settlement. When I grasped the underlining propaganda regarding inter-generational survivors. I opted-out of the CEP settlement. I handed out over 320 opt-out forms in my community.

I truly believe that when my mother, when my father share their truth to their family, to their community, to the nation, And to the world. That is when my family will begin to heal. Only then will I be able to share my truth in a healing way.

Inter-generational survivors we to have our truths to share, but it will be unfitting until our parents and grandparents expose their pain that has been cemented into them. I pray through the process of TRC that (not one) of the children of Residential School be left behind.

I envision a change for myself. I want change, but the process for change means extending myself into a place where I am not fitting. This comes from a belief system that has been established through the experiences in my life.

I want to make a difference for my children as well as my people. There is more to poverty than lack of jobs. There is this GAP that is filled with many compounded factors (emotional, mental, physical, sexual, and spiritual) that obstruct one’s success to a quality life.

The Residential Schools in Canada have left behind a very negative legacy. History is an important piece in our present and hopeful future though there is this breach in how it is depicted because there are many untold truths that have not been conveyed.

June 11, 2008 is a turning point for the Nlakapamux Nation. A turning point for First Nations, Metis and the Inuit to seize this day as proud Canadians. A historical day indeed where the Canadian government put forth an effort to acknowledge the wrongs committed.

Now it is time for the little boys and the little girls of the residential school to voice their truth to complete the circle so that their children and grandchildren can be rediscovered.

What a wonderful way to express one’s self through your quilting project. I am glad that I fell upon your site so that I am given this chance to express my voice. I am grateful for the Internet; it closes the distance.

I am very much appreciative to you Alice for putting forth an effort to bring Residential Survivors and Inter-generational Survivors together in healing way. Here is my piece for the quilting project. Thank you so much I look forward to seeing the finished project.