Sask. man completes 300-km snowshoe trek to recognize Timber Bay Children's Home as a residential school
CBC
For several nights, a Saskatoon man camped trail-side with only a sleeping bag and a small fire, sometimes braving temperatures below -30 C.
On Dec. 18, B'yauling Toni, 21, a non-Indigenous engineering student at the University of Saskatchewan, began an approximate 300-kilometre snowshoe trek to Timber Bay Children's Home in northern Saskatchewan.
He completed his journey on Dec. 28.
Toni is advocating for the children's home to be officially declared a residential school — something that the Lac La Ronge Indian Band (LLRIB) sought for many years.
"I think as a non-Indigenous person we have a lot of responsibility to really take that first step in reconciliation. We often talk about rebuilding that relationship, but for too long we still wait for Indigenous people to take the first step and to kind of fight their way back," Toni said in an interview with CBC News.
"But if that's what we truly want, we have to be the first one to step out there. So I think that as a non-Indigenous person, as a Canadian who benefits from colonization, it's so important that I go out and give that recognition."
Timber Bay Children's Home, located about 105 kilometres north of Prince Albert, was open from 1952 to 1994 and housed hundreds of students drawn from the LLRIB and across northern Saskatchewan.
It was founded by the Northern Canada Evangelical Mission, and later operated by the Brethren in Christ Conference.
LLRIB fought for years in court to have the Timber Bay Children's Home recognized as a residential school and secure compensation for the students who attended the institution.
In 2017, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal ruled that while Timber Bay housed students who attended schools elsewhere, it wasn't directly government-run and was not eligible for residential school status.
The Supreme Court of Canada chose not to hear the LLRIB's appeal.
As a result, survivors of the institution aren't eligible for compensation under the residential school settlement that awarded $1.9 billion to thousands of victims.
Toni arrived at the site of the former Timber Bay Children's Home — just outside Montreal Lake Cree Nation — late Tuesday afternoon and was greeted by survivors of the home and Indigenous leaders including Montreal Lake Cree Nation Chief Joyce McLeod-Naytowhow, Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation Chief Karen Bird, and Lac La Ronge Indian Band Chief Tammy Cook-Searson.
"It was unbelievable, the people who came out and the community there. We had supper. I felt quite honoured," Toni said.
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