Innu inquiry commissioners listen to trauma, hope, skepticism in Sheshatshiu 

During their first day back in Sheshatshiu, the commissioners of the Inquiry Respecting the Treatment, Experiences and Outcomes of Innu in the Child Protection System heard experiences of trauma, hope for the next generation and skepticism that things will change.

Two weeks of community meetings are underway at the Sheshatshiu Youth Centre. All Innu are invited to address the commissioners. 

"We were taken away from our parents. I often wonder why, why did that happen?" Elder Janet Michel told the commissioners through an Innu-aimun translator. 

Michel and her siblings were sent to the North West River dormitory as young teenagers for three years. She said her sister was beaten and abused by the white staff workers.

She would try to stand up to them, she said, resulting in further abuse.

"I remember so well that there were male workers at the dormitory. They grabbed me and threw me in a room," Michel said. "I was told that I will be in that room for one week, but I fought back." 

A man entered the room and sexually abused her, she told the commissioners, prior to letting her out before the week was over. 

Michel's husband also went through residential school, she told the commissioners, and a connection to the land has helped her during the recovery process.

"Today, I think about my husband … how we would spend time together and how we would do our own healing when we would be there," Michel said. 

'I don't think it's ever going to change'

Frederick Pinette also shared his experiences with the commissioners.

Pinette said he struggled as a child, was placed into care, faced racism at homes and dealt with the incarceration of one of his parents. 

His great-grandfather went to a residential school, where Pinette said he "learned" physical and sexual abuse.

"[He passed] it on to my grandfather, and then passed it on to my dad and they try to pass it on to me," Pinette said.

Now a father himself, Pinette told the room he wants his children and stepchildren to succeed and not face the battles he did — but added child protective services makes that a challenge.

Pinette asked commissioners when there will be changes in child protection. Commissioner James Igloliorte told him they will make recommendations to the different levels of government based on what Pinette and others share.

"I don't think it's ever going to change," Pinette responded. 

Formal hearings into the child protection system — and an investigation into the deaths of children in care — are expected to start early next year.

Commissioners Anastasia Qupee, Mike Devine and Igloliorte are looking at the history of Innu in Labrador, the child protection system run by the province and church organizations, and the intergenerational trauma that followed.  

About one-third of children in Newfoundland and Labrador's foster-care system are Indigenous, despite Indigenous people making up only about nine per cent of the province's overall population, according to Statistics Canada.

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