‘Today, we ride for the survivors’

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This article was published 14/06/2021 (1193 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — The Unity Riders of Sioux Valley Dakota Nation and support riders from surrounding communities gathered Monday with their horses at Grand Valley Provincial Park.

The goal of the near-nine-kilometre ride in 28 C heat: keep the spotlight on the search for unmarked grave sites linked to the former Brandon Indian Residential School.

Sioux Valley band councillor Tony Tacan teamed up with Travis Mazawasicuna, head of the Unity Riders, to organize the trek.

“Right now, First Nations everywhere are making this awareness a goal. We need to keep that momentum going so this isn’t swept under the rug or hidden or (not get) talked about. Now, every First Nation community across this country should contribute something. And in small ways everything works,” Tacan said.

Last week, Sioux Valley Chief Jennifer Bone said in a statement the First Nation had identified 104 potential graves in three local cemeteries, but only 78 were accountable through historical records.

On Monday, there were more than 12 horses, riders and support teams. An elder wore a traditional headdress and clothing as he mounted his horse.

Another man wove his way around horses and riders, holding a smouldering traditional smudge in blessing.

“Everybody’s coming together without being told, they want to contribute. That’s a welcome sight. We’re just bringing awareness to the issue. We don’t want nobody to forget,” Tacan said.

“It’s a very bad moment in history, and (we need) to create awareness so it never happens again.

“We have to make sure that these children aren’t forgotten. The descendants of these children need to know where they are.”

In the Dakota culture, horses provide a sacred connection to healing.

“The horse really lifts people up,” Tacan said. “They see the horse come in — and that’s what our intentions are: to make people feel good, that they’re not alone.

“We know there are survivors coming in, one at a time, to look at the grounds, and they’re having hard times. They’re remembering.”

Tacan said while Monday’s ride is significant, the national issue of Indigenous children’s unmarked graves must be kept on the front burner during elections for chiefs and band council members.

“I’m talking about every community. Every leadership that has an election needs to remember this issue and just keep it going.”

He has stepped into the boots his uncle left behind after he died, heading the Unity Riders, a group centred on First Nations advocacy.

“Today, we ride for the survivors. There’s still a lot of living through the historical trauma, and now it’s been passed onto the children and grandchildren,” he said Monday.

There’s a spiritual connection with the horse — rider and animal become as one, he said. Mazawasicuna has travelled hundreds of kilometres on horseback, spreading awareness on issues and healing of his people.

On the hill, just up the road, overlooking a large field, sits a display of 104 orange hearts. A beacon.

At the terminus of the ride, waited a group of residential school survivors and others. The elderly sat, while the very young played under canopies of shade on the site that was once the Brandon residential school.

There were quiet conversations, recounting personal stories and the stories of others.

Children as young as three-and-a-half-years old were once brought to the school, they said. Their ways and language were taken from them.

“The people outside that don’t understand, I think the history books have to be rewritten. I think when everyone sings the national anthem, is it true? We’re not free. This started a long time ago. It’s a deep wound for Canada,“ Mazawasicuna said.

— Brandon Sun