Indigenous Peoples in North America--Canada--Residential schools

Benna Fuller (1888-1977) is the daughter of Ben and Mary Ann Fuller. Benna Fuller died at St. Joseph's Hospital, Little Current, on Thursday January 27, 1977. Benna was buried at the Shingwauk cemetery. Benna Fuller's father, Reverend Benjamin P. Fuller (1865-1945) was the principal of the Shingwauk and Wawanosh Indian Residential Schools from 1909-1929. Benjamin was born in England and settled at St. Joseph's Island, Ontario when he arrived in Canada. He was ordained as deacon in 1902 and spent many years working as a missionary with the Lake Nipigon Indians. He was ordained as a priest in 1906. In 1909 he began working as the principal of the Shingwauk and Wawanosh Homes. From 1929 to 1940 Fuller was in charge of the Silverwater mission. In 1940 he began working with the Garden River Reserve. In 1944, he was installed as a canon of St. Luke's Pro-Cathedral. Ben retired in 1945 and returned to Silver Water. Ben passed away on December 7th 1945 and is buried in the Shingwauk cemetery. Mary Ann Fuller (1866-1955) was born in England and moved to St. Joseph with Ben Fuller. Mary Ann and Ben Fuller married 28 May 1886 in Hilton, Algoma District. She was an assistant matron at Shingwauk and Wawanosh. She is also buried in the Shingwauk cemetery.

Glenn Jourdain attended St. Margaret's Indian Residential School in Fort Frances, Ontario from 1948-1955. Jourdain's father was one of the first students to attend St. Margaret's in 1906.

John Nash is a member of the Northwest Angle # 37 First Nation. John attended residential school as a child. He is currently a student at Algoma University.

These interviews were conducted by Donald John Wilshere as part of his MA in education. These interviews ultimately formed the basis of his thesis, "The Experience of Seven Alumni Who Attended Shingwauk Residential School as Children 1929-1964." Don Wilshere completed his MA at the Faculty of Education at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay.

Edward Francis Wilson was born in the Islington borough of London, England in 1844. His family were reform minded evangelicals, and he too imbibed that spirit. Having come to Canada to farm, he had the occasion to visit an Indian reservation in southern Ontario (Sarnia). He then decided that "God had called him here to minister to the Ojibways". Wilson was ordained in the Church of England in 1867.While visiting Reverend J. Chance, minister at Garden River, Wilson became interested in Chief Shingwauk and the northern Ontario Ojibways. When Chance was transferred Augustine Shingwauk requested that Wilson be appointed as minister to Garden River. He took up his post in 1872 and immediately began to campaign alongside the Shingwauk brothers for funds for a residential school for native children. He remained Principal of the Shingwauk Home until 1893 when he moved to British Columbia to retire. Most of Wilson's years as Principal were spent adhering to the philosophy that prevailed at the time. And this philosophy was "assimilation". He saw "little good" in the ways of the Ojibway and attempted through education to change their ways. This involved creating a distance between the native students and their families. The attempt to accomplish this was manifested in such methods as the banning of the use of any native language, except for one hour a day, and the constant ingraining of Christian doctrines into the students. In his last years at the Shingwauk, Wilson's ideas changed drastically. In The Canadian Indian, a journal he co-founded, he recommended autonomy for native people and supported the maintenance of their languages. It seems that as a result of his experience he was led to a profound change of philosophy regarding the native way of life. Having come to know and appreciate the native people he realized almost one hundred years ago that assimilation was wrong and would not work.|In any event, once begun, the basic idea of the residential school established at Shingwauk was carried on under the direction of his followers.

Georgia (Georgie) Kirkpatrick (1903-1984) was born in Diligent River, near Parrsboro, Nova Scotia on September 18, 1903. Georgia graduated from Mount Allison University, in Sackville, New Brunswick. She taught at Shingwauk Indian Residential School from 1923-1926. In 1926 her father wrote a letter to the school, asking that she be excused from her duties and sent home to care for her mother, who was dying of cancer. She returned home immediately and her mother died a few months later. On July 11, 1927 Georgia married Perley W. Wright, a pharmacist, and later, mayor, in Parrsboro. They had five children. Georgia was president of the local Red Cross for many years, she also occasionally wrote for Halifax's Chronicle-Herald. She and her husband had a house and a cottage in Parrsboro. Her husband died in 1965 and she died on February 14, 1984. The house is now owned by one of her grandsons. The cottage, on the shore of the Minas Basin of the Bay of Fundy is currently enjoyed by her five children, twenty-one grandchildren, and many great-grandchildren. Georgina spoke fondly of her time at Shingwauk and is remembered as a kind, gracious woman, who always saw the decency in others.

The Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association (CSAA) was formalized in 1996. CSAA is comprised of staff, students, descendants of staff and students, and friends of the Shingwauk Indian Residential School. CSAA has been heavily involved in the development of the Shingwauk Project and the implementation of residential school healing initiatives. CSAA currently holds the Health Canada contract for Residential School support workers in a region of Ontario.

In 2006-2007 the Indian residential schools settlement agreement was approved by the Canadian courts. The settlement was the result of various lawsuits against the Canadian government and church groups, based on the operation and management of residential schools. The settlement included Common Experience Payments (CEP) for former students who lived at residential schools; an Independent Assessment Process (IAP) to allow those who suffered physical or psychological abuse to receive payments. The settlement also included an clause to benefit former students and families: $125 million to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation for healing programmes; $60 million for truth and reconciliation to document and preserve the experiences of survivors; and $20 million for national and community commemorative projects.