Coming to Fences: Moving from Deficit to Hope Through Stories of Intergenerational Strength

• Main Author: Voyageur , Danielle Candice Colombe
• Format: Still Image
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Research image; Aho; Fort Chipewyan; Indian; Perseverance; Chipewyan
• Online Access: https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/f643c012-4ccf-4cbf-b3b1-509ada4ed3b0; https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-a39e-av94

On the grounds of where the Holy Angels Indian Residential School once stood, I attended the Truth Scanning Information Gathering on August 22nd & 23rd 2022 in my community of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta. This gathering marked the beginning of the process to identify the unmarked graves of our children through an extensive ground scanning. My late dad, Donald Voyageur was forced to attend the ‘Mission’ for ten long years. In honour of my dad, I hung an orange ribbon on the fence and remembered a pivotal story of intergenerational strength supporting me in my efforts to heal from my lived experiences in child welfare. This ‘Mission’ fence symbolizes the perseverance, strength and hope embodied in the lived experiences of both residential school and Sixties Scoop survivors. Through stories of intergenerational strength, Indigenous people are moving beyond fences of oppression. I honour the strength and courage of all those survivors of Holy Angels Indian Residential School; those children who met their parents along the ‘Mission’ fence. I honour and remember all those who did not go home to their loving parents. May these children know and feel the love from this generation through our remembrance. Marsi cho, Aho, All My Relations.