Former Shingwauk Indian Residential School National Historic Site

The Residential School System is a topic that may cause trauma invoked by memories of past abuse. The Government of Canada recognizes the need for safety measures to minimize the risk associated with triggering. A National Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for former residential school students. You can access information on the website or access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-Hour National Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419.

Large Building
Former Shingwauk Indian Residential School
© Parks Canada / Nathalie Ouellette

The Former Shingwauk Indian Residential School was designated a national historic site in 2021.

Commemorative plaque: No plaque installedFootnote 1

Nominated by the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre

The former Shingwauk Indian Residential School is located in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, on Robinson-Huron territory on the traditional homeland of the Anishinaabe and the Métis. The former school property encompasses the present campus of Algoma University and Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig (Shingwauk University). This site was nominated for designation by the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre (SRSC). Parks Canada, the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association, and the SRSC worked collaboratively to identify the historic values of this former residential school, and co-developed the report on the students’ experiences and the history of the school for the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Honouring Shingwauk Survivors

Sisters Jackie Fletcher and Shirley Horn share their experiences as Survivors of Shingwauk Indian Residential School. This video was developed as a collaboration between the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre at Algoma University and Parks Canada.

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Transcript

[TEXT SLIDE]

This video deals with topics that may cause trauma involved by memories of past abuse. A 24-hour National Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for former residential school students and their families.

Please call the Crisis Line at 1-866-925-4419 to access emotional and crisis referral services.

[A foggy view of the façade of Shingwauk Hall at Algoma University appears]

[TEXT SLIDE]

The former Shingwauk Indian Residential School National Historic Site

Robinson-Huron treaty territory

Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

The Property is on Robinson-Huron Treaty Territory, the traditional homeland of the Anishinaabe and Métis

(JACKIE FLETCHER)

When I came it was in 1959 and I was 14 years old, and I came with my younger sister, June, who was at the time 9.

[Archival photograph of children at Shingwauk Indian Residential School seated on the floor in a circle, a second archival photograph shows a group of students in front of the school’s main entrance.]

(JACKIE FLETCHER)

It was very traumatic for me because I’ve never seen a building like this huge, and to come through those doors, and to hear them close behind you, it was very traumatic.

[Drone view of the Shingwauk Indian Residential School surrounded by fog, the drone then zooms towards the entrance of the building.]

(JACKIE FLETCHER)

My name is Jackie Fletcher, my Cree name is [Singing Bird Woman], which is Singing Bird Woman. And I got that name from a Garden River medicine man. To this day I still don’t really know what it means, but he says that you’re given a name and you will figure it out. So I don’t know if it’s because of singing about Shingwauk, that that's what it means.

[Another drone video of Shingwauk Hall, the main building at Shingwauk Indian Residential School, on a foggy evening.]

(SHIRLEY HORN)

I first went to the residential school of Chapleau in a canoe because we lived down the river from there, then left at this huge stone building. That was very traumatic for me.

[Archival photographs of Indigenous families travelling by canoe, and then archival photographs of Shingwauk.]

(SHIRLEY HORN)

Because I knew what to expect, I wasn’t too shocked at my attending the Shingwauk school. I guess by the time I was 7 I learned to accept it; follow the rules as well.

[Front view of modern-day Shingwauk Hall surrounded by fog. Then an image of a student’s timetable for a day at Shingwauk appears on screen.]

(SHIRLEY HORN)

And it’s only when I’ve gotten older that I really look at what the plan was and how well that was orchestrated and carried out by the government and the churches.

[Archival photograph of students studying at tables.]

(SHIRLEY HORN)

My name is [New Dawn Woman], that’s my Cree name. It means New Dawn Woman, and I’m Shirley Horn.

[Drone view of the front of Shingwauk Hall surrounded by fog, and then transitions into a view from inside the building looking towards the front doors.]

(JACKIE FLETCHER)

When we came through those front doors, with my younger sister, she had never been away from our family, and what they did right then and there was take her away from me and drag her down the hall with her crying.

That was really hard. And the only time I got to see her was at mealtime, the intermediate and senior girls were sitting at one end and the juniors were on the other end and she would be standing there looking for me, and every time she saw me she’d start crying.

That's what they did, they separated you.

[Front view of Shingwauk Hall surrounded by fog.]

(SHIRLEY HORN)

The communities suffered greatly. Here you have your children and all of a sudden all of the children in the community are gone.

[Archival photographs are seen on screen. The first is a group class photograph on the front steps of Shingwauk Hall. The second is a group of students outside. Then there is a view of a contemporary fence at the Shingwauk cemetery with a pair of children's moccasins attached to it.]

(SHIRLEY HORN)

It left the adults in a very difficult situation in that they couldn’t be mothers and fathers, and the grandparents especially suffered. The grandchildren weren't around. That's the part that really is rarely talked about, is the impact on the community.

[Drone view of the front of Shingwauk Hall in fog, and then transitions into a view of the Hall on a sunny day.]

(JACKIE FLETCHER)

1981 was our first reunion, and that was a fun time. It was just getting to meet everybody again and finding out what was going on with their lives. Because that was our family while we were here, so it was like meeting family members.

[Photograph of former students at the 1981 reunion.]

(SHIRLEY HORN)

That first reunion we had over 300 of the former students come back.

[Photograph of the welcome sign for the reunion, and then photographs of people attending the reunion.]

It was really joyful, talking about their life at Shingwauk but also talking about what they had been doing, raising families and so on. So there was a lot of information that was exchanged at that first reunion.

[Additional photographs appear from the reunion.]

(JACKIE FLETCHER)

And then we had another one ten years later in '91 and that was a shock because I didn’t realize a lot of abuses were going on. I didn’t see much when I was here. I was only here for 2 years.

[Drone view of Shingwauk Hall from above.]

(SHIRLEY HORN) We had circles, part of the culture that we had been reintroducing to our groups and our people and so on, then the stories started to come out because the circle is a very, very strong and spiritual place.

[Additional photographs appear from the reunion.]

People were shocked, people were crying, and it was a pretty dramatic reunion that we had at that time. We knew then and there that we had to do something about it. So we chose to become the group of the Children of Shingwauk.

[Jackie Fletcher and Shirley Horn walk through a hallway in Shingwauk Hall with interpretive panels on either side.]

(JACKIE FLETCHER)

All the work we’ve been doing in forty years, the generations below us still don’t participate or talk about it.

[Close-ups of the interpretative panels appears with the words “Missing evidence” and “…to Residential School,” followed by additional photos of the reunion while Jackie talks.]

That's a real hard thing to break into. That’s why I work so hard for the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association. I want this story to be told by our people, and right now there’s a lot of us who are leaving this earth, there’s not very many of us left. And we have the passion to do this work because we have experienced it.

[A drone view of Shingwauk Hall is visible and the following text is overlaid.]

[TEXT SLIDE]

The Former Shingwauk Indian Residential School was designated as a National Historic Site in April 2021.

(SHIRLEY HORN)

The fact that Shingwauk has been designated as a historical site in Canada is very, very important. We’re so very fortunate to still have this school standing and we recognized that early on when we first came together.

[While Shirley talks there is more drone views of Shingwauk Halls, photographs from the reunions, and scenes from the displays inside Shingwauk Hall.]

We’ve managed as a group and our many helpers, the people that have worked with us through the years and shared in our vision and shared in our dream, that this would be a place, not only a memorial site, but a place that people can use to broaden their horizons in terms of their knowledge, a place to be for people to come and be around here and heal themselves.

(JACKIE FLETCHER)

I was very excited to see that Parks Canada was designating this as a National Historic Site.

[As Jackie speaks, there are drone shots of Shingwauk Hall and around Algoma University.]

We need Canadians to know, not only Canadians but worldwide to know what happened here in Canada. It’s part of the Truth and Reconciliation process, that the truth does come out that way.

[Scenes showing a memorial bench and displays inside Shingwauk Hall.]

(SHIRLEY HORN)

This is the place that holds the memory of the children and also the written memories and they’re there, they’re there to be witnessed, they’re there to be shared, they’re there to be a tool that can help with the understanding of what trauma took place in the residential schools.

[Displays inside Shingwauk Hall are shown, and then the Shingwauk Hall is seen once more as the drone leaves the campus.]

[TEXT SLIDE]

With deep appreciation this film features Shirley Horn and Jackie Fletcher, sisters and Survivors of Shingwauk Residential School.

[TEXT SLIDE]

This video is brought to you through a collaboration between the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre at Algoma University and Parks Canada.

[TEXT SLIDE]

Parks Canada is supporting the efforts of Survivors and communities to commemorate residential schools.

Learn more: parks.canada.ca/residential

[TEXT SLIDE]

Photo Credits

The archival photos used in this video come from the archives of the Shingwauk Residential School Centre at Algoma University and are used with permission.

END CREDITS

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The Residential School System

Opened in 1875 by the Anglican Church, Shingwauk IRS was part of the system of residential schools in Canada. This system was imposed on Indigenous Peoples by the federal government and certain churches and religious organizations, who worked together in a deliberate effort to assimilate Indigenous children and convert them to Christianity by separating them from their families, cultures, languages, and traditions. From 1935 to its closure in 1970, the school was administered and funded by the federal government. The Anglican Church operated the school until 1969.

The school was named after prominent Anishinaabe Chief Shingwaukonse, whose vision for a school where Anishinaabe students could acquire European-based knowledge and skills that would enable them to thrive in a rapidly changing society led to the establishment of earlier schools in the region. Over the course of its 96 years of existence, it was a Shingwauk school in name only as Chief Shingwaukonse’s true vision was lost.

The site and property

Shingwauk Hall, the school’s primary structure, was built in 1934-35 to replace the original school building which dated to the late-19th century. It is one of the few remaining residential school buildings in Canada. Other buildings and landscape elements related to the former school include the Shingwauk Memorial Cemetery (1876), Bishop Fauquier Memorial Chapel (1883), the former principal’s residence (1935), the former woodworking shop (1951), and Anna McCrea Public School (1956). The Shingwauk IRS site is one of the few surviving residential school sites with a notable ensemble of preserved built and landscape elements that continue to testify to the long history of the residential school system in Canada.

The mistreatment of students

More than a thousand Indigenous children from Ontario, Quebec, the Prairies, and the Northwest Territories attended this school. Whether they were there by choice or coercion, students were subject to a regimented daily routine that involved working to maintain the school while facing severe discipline and abuse, harsh labour, emotional neglect, inadequate nutrition, poor healthcare, and poor living conditions. Siblings remained separated by gender and age, and Indigenous languages were forbidden. Many students spent their entire childhoods at the school and some never returned home. The far-reaching effects of the residential school experience continue to have significant impact on former students, their families, and communities today.

A place of cultural reclamation

Since the closure of the school in 1970, the site has been a place of cultural reclamation and education. For decades, Algoma University, Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig (Shingwauk University), the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association, and their partners have been committed to the restoration of the true intent and spirit of Chief Shingwaukonse’s vision – cross-cultural education and learning – and the reinterpretation of the site as a place for healing and reconciliation.

Backgrounder last update: 2021-05-21

The National Program of Historical Commemoration relies on the participation of Canadians in the identification of places, events and persons of national historic significance. Any member of the public can nominate a topic for consideration by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Get information on how to participate in this process

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