Gathering of James Bay Cree in Moose Factory opens with welcome home for residential school survivors

Many with ties to the James Bay Coast are coming to Moose Factory this week for celebrations including Creefest and the Moose Cree Gathering of our People. 

And that includes some who were originally forced to come to the island community.

The festivities started on a sombre note Tuesday, with a special ceremony to welcome home former students of the Horden Hall residential school, which operated in the Cree community until 1976.

Hundreds gathered under the midday sun on the grounds of the former school, now home to the local Ministik elementary school.

Stella Schimmens, 72, was first sent to Horden Hall when she was 6, and helped organize the event.

"Some people never had a welcoming home. And some say that they didn't even have a bed to sleep on," she said.

Schimmens was later sent to Shingwauk Indian Residential School in Sault Ste. Marie, but says no notice was ever given to her parents or her relatives in Moose Factory.

Other former students who stepped up to the microphone Tuesday told stories of those dark times that they say they don't like to talk about.

They also ate cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday to make up for all the birthdays not marked by the children who were sent away.

At the end, all of the former students, many of whom hail from the Cree communities on the Quebec side of James Bay, gathered in a circle and were encircled by members of the community, shaking hands and embracing, all while the names of children who didn't make it home were read out loud. 

"A few of us talked about our friends who aren't here any more. The hugs were very heartwarming. You could feel the love," said Schimmens. 

Peter Wesley, the recently-elected chief of Moose Cree Nation, also attended the Horden Hall residential school, but says that he didn't think of himself as a survivor until recently. 

"It just didn't click for me. I went in and I came out," he said.

"When I think back on it, I can see the impacts. In my actions and my habits. I don't speak Cree fluently. I lost that."