THUNDER BAY - An education institution that aims to bring the classroom to Indigenous youth has been renamed in honour of an Indigenous boy who died while trying to return home after being taken away to residential school.
Oshki-Pimache-O-Win Education Institute was officially renamed the Oshki-Pimache-O-Win Wenjack Education Institute in memory of Chanie Wenjack during a ceremony on the first day of the Nishawbe Aski Nation Chiefs Winter Assembly on Tuesday.
Established in 1996, Oshki-Pimache-O-Win provides education and training programs to Indigenous youth who may otherwise not be able to because of financial or geographical barriers. More than 250 students have graduated with postsecondary credentials with a success rate of 80 per cent.
Rosie Mosquito, executive director with Oshki-Pimache-O-Win, said the new name is building on its brand of new beginnings.
“We are very pleased and we are very honoured to know that our institute can honour the memory of Chanie Wenjack,” she said. “The story of Chanie Wenjack is one we can all learn from as Indigenous people, as First Nation people, as Nishnawbe Aski Nation in the Thunder Bay area and in Ontario and across Canada.”
Chanie Wenjack was taken from his home in Marten Falls First Nation to attend the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School when he was nine years old. In October 1966, Chanie ran away from the residential school and attempted to return home along the railway tracks but succumbed to the cold and died on Oct. 23.
The story of Chanie’s journey garnered national attention after singer/songwriter, Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip, wrote a series of poems about Chanie that were turned into a graphic novel and animated film entitled The Secret Path.
Downie’s older brother, Mike, was in Thunder Bay for the announcement on Tuesday, and he said it was an honour to be representing his family and brother during such an important ceremony.
“I can tell you all that my brother Gord would be very proud of what just happened, very proud that the Wenjack name will be a part of an important institution that helps send people in a new direction in their lives through education and training,” he said. “That was something Gord really believed in, education.”
Chanie’s sister, Pearl Achneepineskum, also attended residential school, and she said the children who were forced to attend continue to struggle with lasting, generational impacts.
“It’s part of us,” she said. “When you are taken at six years old, it’s something you have to contend with. You grow up fast. At six years old you have to fend for yourself. Everything you went through at that school, it stayed with you. It has stayed with me. I also see others who have gone to school and I see those same traits that I see in myself.”
Achneepineskum said she is very proud to see her brother’s name associated with an organization that is bringing education and training to Indigenous youth across the region.
“The institution that we went to, I suppose was meant to be a good opportunity for us, but they neglected to consider the feelings of the children,” Achneepineskum said. “My brother just wouldn’t accept that and that is why he ran away. Otherwise, if it had been at home, it would have been a different story.”
On Tuesday, a new mobile trades trailer was also unveiled, which will bring state-of-art training to First Nation communities across the Northwest.
“We are getting stronger and creating healthier and stronger individuals in our communities throughout institutions,” Mosquito said. “That’s what excites me. That’s what it’s all about. We enjoy the ability to provide innovative programming. What our mobile unit offers us today is the ability to provide trades training and apprenticeship opportunities to our people.”
The 1,800 square foot mobile trades trailer has 16 work stations and can provide training in areas such as welding, electrical, mechanical, construction, carpentry, and mill wright. The unit is looking for expressions of interest from potential students and Mosquito said it will be able to take education and training to communities throughout the NAN territory, removing barriers to students who may not otherwise be able to receive an education.
And as it travels through the region bringing education and training to Indigenous youth, it will carry the name of one young man who wanted nothing more than to return home and the image of him alone on the train tracks, which is something Achneepineskum carries with her every day.
“In my life there is an image of him every day,” she said. “His name is here every day. I live his life every day because I went through the same sort of thing he went through. Whatever he thought and whatever he went through at that school, we all went through. It has been with us.”
