Forgotten: Exhibit on Mtis experience of residential schools important recognition, survivor says

A new exhibit in Winnipeg is putting a spotlighton the Mtis experience of residential schools in Canada.

Forgotten launches Monday at the United Way of Winnipeg. The exhibit is a series of photographs documenting residential schools in Manitoba and historical markers throughout Mtis history.

• Mtis reflect on Residential School experiences
• A history of residential schools in Canada

For Andrew Carrier, the opening is an important piece of recognitionfor Mtis survivors.

"It's to recognize that there's a price that the Mtis community has paid for higher education, and that price is loss of identity, shame of our Mtis culture," he said. Carrier is the minister responsible for Mtis Residential Day School Survivors in the Manitoba Mtis Federation.

He's also a survivor of the residential school system. Carrier attended a "day school," as did his parents and grandparents. He said he hasn't yet processed the abuse he experienced when at school, but events like the exhibit contribute to healing.

"Part of the healing process .. is to speak about the tragedies and the hardship," Carrier said.

"To this day, the apologies have only been asserted to the First Nations community and the Mtis have been, for the most part, not allowed to speak about the discipline and the sexual abuse that they suffered at the hands of the administrators, or even at the hands of the teachers and at the hands of any abuser."

Raising awareness

Carrier said he feels like the general public has little to no awareness of the Mtis experience of residential schools, which he said was "very similar, if not identical" to what First Nations students went through, aside from the fact that many Mtis students would have only attended "day schools" instead of boarding schools.

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The new exhibit will focus on history of schools in the past, but Carrier said their impact has reverberated into the present, carried on throughliving survivors and the loss ofMtisculture and tradition.

If you'd like to see Forgotten: The Mtis Residential School Experience you can drop in at the United Way offices at580 Main St.