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Lakeshore Advance, 2011-10-12, Page 1010 Lakeshore Advance • Wednesday, October 12, 2011 Native youth suicide rates prompt former Lieutenant Governor to write novel 4) James Bartleman speaks during fourth annual Celebration of First Nations in Bayfield Susan Hundertmark SMI Agency As lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 2002-2007, James Bartleman flew into remote communities in Northern Ontario to find that large numbers of native youth were commit- ting suicide, "One 12 or 13 -year-old girl had hanged her- self in a tree outside the school so the other students could see her when they came into the school in the morning. It was part of a sui- cide pact with two other kids. l was told they have no hope. Almost all of them say that life is not worth living," he told the audience at the Hayfield Town Hall as part of the fourth annual Celebration of First Nations event on Sunday afternoon. Bartleman, the first aboriginal lieutenant Governor of Ontario, recently wrote the novel "As Long As the River Flows" to examine the long-term damage done by residential schools on generations of native people, culminating in the current crisis with youth suicide and the attempts being trade to combat the problem with healing circles. "It's very sad that kids continue to die so 1 Dutch Blitz (;re•err e'le•er►rirrel /c)r- t'e>ttr• lre►rrrc► Cleaning Over 20 years of clutch cleaning experience. Let our team take good carr of you and your house. Serving Rayfield, Grand Bend and Exeter area. 13i -weekly cleans available. Contact us now for your fire in home evaluation. 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Established in the late 19th Century, resi- dential schools were created with "the stated purpose to kill the Indian in the child," said Bartleman adding that for 100 years, chil- dren were forceably removed, sometimes seized by the policy, to be taken to residen- tial schools. "'They were raised as orphans or prisoners, fed slop and lived under the care of church officials who could beat them or rape them - there was no accountability. And, they returned home at 16 having forgotten their language and indoctrined that natives were savages and inferior. 'they were fit for neither the native world or the white world," he said. Bartleman added that the churches that ran the residential schools told the children that their native culture was a violation of the First Commandment and if they believed in Manitou or other native spiritual stories, they were engaging in devil worship. "And, if they took part in powwows, the drum music they were listening to was dedi- cated to the devil. Keep that in mind when you hear the drumming later on," he said, of the traditional First Notions dancers and drummers scheduled to performs in Bayfield after his talk. During his five and a half years as Lieuten- ant Governor, Bartleman learned that native children received 80 per cent of the provin- cial funding that all other Ontario children receive for their education and as a conse- quence usually test five or six years behind non-native children on testing in Grade 9. "It's a lot like the Southern U.S. before the Civil Rights movement. 'Ibis is the condition of native children in the north - they have the highest rate of suicide and yet we toler- ate giving them only 80 per cent of the edu- cational funding. 'there are no books in the libraries, no sports equipment and no edu- cational assistants in the classrooms," he said. In response, Bartleman began to ship books into the remote communities, using the military and northern airlines. In one case, he waited with the community of Fort Severn in minus 40 Celsius weather for the airplanes that were bringing books and knowledge to the children and watched in dismay as the parachutes came down but didn't open. "They came down in cases and smashed into the ice and everyone ran onto the ice picking books out of the snow. All the media there turned to me and asked if that was what was supposed to happen and 1 said, "Sure it was" so nobody reported what a big screw -up it was," he laughed. With $1.5 million in books shipped to the north, Bartleman then started promoting reading clubs for children and the Southern Ontario library Service began a program donating a book to each child in the north every three months so they could own their own books. "The nurses at the medical stations told me that kids were now sitting on the hack steps reading and it was a wonderful sight to Heist IMMdar4eark OMI Agency Former Ontario Lieutenant Governer James Radioman speaks in Bayfield about his novel As Long As the River Flows. fiee," he said. Bartleman also convinced 13 Ontario uni- versities and colleges to make a five-year commitment towards creating 40 literacy camps for children from Kindergarten to Grade 6 in the north, an initiative whose funding recently ran out but Bartleman said his successor is approaching the sponsors to see if it can continue. "We wanted to focus on getting the little kids learning so they will keep those skills," he said. Comparing the Cree communities in the north in Ontario with the Cree communities on the other side of James Bay in Quebec where hydro deals have brought billions of dollars into the communities, Bartleman said youth suicide is very rare in Quebec. "there is a direct correlation to equitable funding," he said, adding that the Ontario communities are "basically rural slums with the poorest of the poor living in them, drink- ing water that is not fit to drink and living in rotting housing with infrastructure that is falling apart" Ile said the northern communities are try- ing to combat youth suicide with healing cir- cles that promote pride in the native identity, celebrating powwows, native dance, native theatre and native people who have become role models. "Unfortunately, some native people have found they can be much more authentic in the city than on the reserve," he said. By writing his novel, Bartleman was hop- ing to touch an emotional chord that an aca- demic text could not reach. Ile said the novel has received•a lot of media interest and is now being used a resource material by wom- en's studies classes in universities, As well, he's hoping that things like his novel and the Shannen's Dream campaign, initiated to continue the letter -writing efforts of a girl from Attawapiskat who was fighting for a healthy school for her community, will bring more awareness to the inequity of funding for native students. "l'ni hoping we can reach Canadians on an emotional level and put pressure on the government to live up to what they tall the rest of the world they are moral leaders," he said.