Canada’s governor general arrived in Brantford Tuesday taking a firsthand look at of one of the oldest and longest running residential schools in the country.
David Johnston’s sombre tour of the Mohawk Institute Residential School marked the 20th anniversary of National Aboriginal Day.
The governor general said Canada as we know it exists because of the contributions of aboriginal people – contributions that he said other Canadians “have actively tried to ignore, supress and erase.”
“Indeed, that was one of the reasons why this building, a former Mohawk Institute Indian residential school was built,” he said.
Roberta Hill was placed in the residential school in 1957, when she was just six years old.
“It was very difficult for me to understand where we were,” she said in an interview.
She said it wasn’t long before she saw violence and abuse, including to herself.
“When my mom left (the school administrator) took me into his office and that’s where he sexually abused me,” she said.
Hill said she wasn’t the only student abused; there were many others like her.
It’s not known how many students attended the Mohawk Institute because many of the records have been lost.
Saying she wants Canada’s history of residential schools never to be forgotten, Hill is advocating for better education of the issue in schools.
With reporting by Nicole Lampa
