N.W.T. residential school photos need IDs

An Inuvialuit museum in the Northwest Territories is seeking help in identifying former students of a residential school in the western Arctic, based on photographs taken in the 1930s.

The Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre, a cultural library and museum in Inuvik, N.W.T., is asking people in the area to go through hundreds of archival photos taken at St. John's Eskimo Residential School at Shingle Point, about 100 kilometres northwest of Aklavik, N.W.T., near the Beaufort Sea coast.

The photos were donated to the museum in 2004 by the family of Rev. Sherman Shepherd, who was the principal at the Anglican boarding school between 1929 and 1936.

Curator Cathy Cockney said Shepherd's pictures captured what life was like for Inuvialuit children who attended the school. Many photos showed students in uniform, their hair cut short.

"There's some photos in the classroom, but most of them are outdoor shots, so they spent a lot of time with students outside of the school," Cockney told CBC News.

Many faces identified

Enrollment at the Shingle Point school peaked in 1931-32, with 44 students in residence that year.

But by 1936, the school closed and students were moved to a new residential school in the community of Aklavik, according to the Anglican Church of Canada's website.

About half of the students depicted in Shepherd's photo collection including Cockney's own mother and some of her relatives have been identified to date.

Cockney said she hopes residential school survivors whoplan to attend the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's national event in Inuvik later this month will help put names on the remaining faces.

"The people in the photos are our elders now, so they would recognize themselves," she said.

At least 1,000 people are expected to come to Inuvik between June 28 and July 1 for the national event, in which the commission will gather statements from former students about their residential school experiences.