Up Ghost River (34 page)

The Harper government's bills set fire to years of frustration pent up from the residential schools, racism, broken treaty promises, the Indian Act, and everything else that has kept us down. The movement began as rallies in a few Canadian cities, but then exploded across Canada and beyond, spreading ideas and native engagement around the world. There were protests in more than fifty countries, with international indigenous groups offering letters of support.

“I invite all who support my activities to also support Idle No More and I invite all those who support Idle No More to also support
the struggle of my people, the Kayapo, for the protection of the indigenous territories and the opposition to the Belo Monte dam,” wrote Chief Raoni Metuktire, who has been fighting to stop the flooding of 400 square kilometres of Amazon rainforest, predicted to displace twenty thousand people, a fight that film director James Cameron has compared to a real-life version of
Avatar
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The movement's outreach and peacefulness led many to describe it in prophetic terms. “The news about what's happening in the North, in these cold lands that we call Canada, came like hot hurricane winds,” Oscar Olivera, one of the leading indigenous organizers in Bolivia's battle against water privatization wrote on the Idle No More website. “It is our struggle like all of the battles that our brothers of the South are fighting: brothers and sisters in Argentinean Patagonia, Mapuches in Chile, Quechuas of the Cajamarca in Peru, Quichuas from CONAIE, peasants in Paraguay, indigenous people from the lower lands of TIPNIS in Bolivia …” Many saw it as a movement of hope, as predicted by an ancient indigenous teaching, the Seven Fires prophecy. The Anishinaabe prophecy was woven onto a wampum belt around the year 1400 CE, but has become pan-indigenous, with Crees, Ojibways, Stoneys, Iroquois, Denes, Haida and many others talking about it from coast to coast. Each Fire describes a period of native history, with the Sixth Fire usually interpreted as the creation of residential schools and the rise of Christianity.

The Seventh Fire explains what we must do now to move forward:

The series of marches to protest Idle No More was symbolic of young people finding their voices by retracing “their steps to find what was left by the trail.” As part of Idle No More, the Youth for the Lakes, many from Jackhead First Nation in Manitoba, marched to Ottawa to seek protection for Lake Winnipeg, which has become severely polluted. The Crees of northern Quebec walked 1,600 kilometres from Whapmagoostui to Ottawa. They named it the Journey of Nishiyuu, a word that means how humans are interconnected with nature and all living beings. Hundreds of aboriginals and others joined them along the way.

What was accomplished by Idle No More? With Stephen Harper's parliamentary majority, it was hard for us to stop the Acts from becoming law. And yet, it soon became apparent that the movement was bigger than the original legislation that sparked it. We organized and demonstrated politically and spiritually, championing those aspects of our culture that the residential schools had tried to destroy. At the protests worldwide, we raised our voices and sang to the four directions to show that we are still here. We banged the moosehide drum because it symbolizes the union between the heartbeat of Mother Earth and our people, still beating strong after centuries of oppression. We rose up, strong and united, to return to the Red Road. We took to the streets and retraced the ancient
trails. We found our spirits and our voices, and told our stories of renewed pride and strength in powerful traditions. We took a healing journey, as I have been doing ever since I left St. Anne's. We honoured the memories of our living ghosts.

Three women with a child in a tikinagan (between the two women on the right), ca. 1945. They are de-branching and loading logs to a sled, which a horse would then haul to the sawmill. The Roman Catholic Church Mission hired local women to do the heavy work, including harvesting trees, working the mill, clearing the land, and doing farm work. They worked Monday to Friday, from dawn to nightfall, and were paid a small daily wage (using O.M.I. coinage), along with half a loaf of homemade bread and a 20 oz. can of beans
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Crossing Yellow Creek, over a bridge during spring high water, ca. 1950. The bridge connected St. Anne's Residential School to the village of Fort Albany, where there were services such as the Hudson's Bay store, post office and Holy Angels Catholic Church. Yellow Creek fed into the Albany River to the west
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My parents, Abraham and Mary Metatawabin, on their wedding day in 1947
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Our old family home in Fort Albany, 1956
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Me at age four in Fort Albany. I would go to St. Anne's nearly four years later
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Local Cree women who worked at St. Anne's Residential School. At the far right is my mom, Mary Metatawabin
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Father Lavois and the St. Anne's girl students on a weekend canoeing trip, ca. 1953. A popular destination was a camp across the lake, where they would have picnics and campfires
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The St. Anne's mission boat was used to bring food, household and hunting supplies from Moosonee to Fort Albany. During the holidays, it took students from the nearby communities to and from school
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