Kitchener students honour Chanie Wenjack with fundraising walk

On a cold October evening in 1966, a 13-year-old youth named Chanie Wenjack collapsed next to a railway track in northern Ontario and died.

His story has inspired a book by Joseph Boyden and a multimedia project by Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip.

In Waterloo region, it has inspired the Wenjack Railway Walk.

Wenjack had been running away from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School in Kenora, Ont., in a desperate attempt to find his way home to his family.

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On Oct. 23, students from Eastwood Collegiate Institute will gather at Victoria Park in downtown Kitchener at 1:00 p.m. and walk approximately four kilometres back to school, where they'll participate in a ceremony with Indigenous musicians, performers and speakers.

"We all decided that this would be a good way to reach out to the community and spread a bit of knowledge about the Indigenous issues in Canada," said Grace Schmelzle, a Grade 12 student and one of the walk organizers.

A fine and moving line

Schmelzle became interested in Canada's Indigenous history last year, when she opted to take an Indigenous issues elective at school.

Although neither she nor any of the other organizers have ties to the local Indigenous community, she said they have been trying very hard "to be allied voices without taking credit for the story as our own." 

If we have 20 people out, we will be happy to have those 20. If we can get 200 people, that would be even better.- Ruxandra Balanean

To do that, they've been talking to a lot of people who do belong to the local Indigenous community, and attended a powwow at Huron Heights Secondary School on Oct. 6.

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"There's a fine line, and the line moves," she said. "It's a bit of a task to figure out what's okay and what isn't, but I think we've done okay so far."

Joining the Eastwood Collegiate walkers will be students from at least five other high schools, as well as people from the community. 

"If we have 20 people out, we will be happy to have those 20," said Ruxandra Balanean, another one of the organizers. "If we can get 200 people, that would be even better."

Fundraising effort

All walkers are being asked to register with the school and donate at least $10 to Save The Evidence, a campaign to repair and restore the Mohawk Institute Indian Residential School in Brantford.

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The school was built in the early 1900s and closed in 1970. Since then, little has been done to the building, although the Woodland Cultural Centre has been running tours through it.

In 2013, caretakers discovered leaks in the roof of the school. The cultural centre's management asked the local Indigenous community what they should do.

"We asked them, 'What would you like us to do? How would you like us to proceed?' And the response was overwhelmingly save the building, save the evidence," said Carlie Myke, centre outreach coordinator.

The goal of the campaign is not only to repair the school's damaged roof, but also to restore the outside of the building to its original condition, to upgrade the building's heating, cooling and electrical systems, and to create and educational program for people who want to visit the school.

In total, the campaign will cost an estimated $12.5 million. Myke said $8.5 million has already been raised.

"It's a huge project, but it's one that I think we have a really clear vision and we have a breadth of support from across the region," she said. "So I think we're really hoping to make this project into a reality."

Myke said money raised during the Wenjack Railway Walk will go towards creating an education program for visitors.

School survivor joins walk

The school is currently closed to the public, but prior to renovations, the cultural centre ran tours through the building, often led by school survivors. 

Roberta Hill attended the Mohawk Institute from 1957 to 1961 and admitted that "there were some pretty horrific things that were done to children" at the time.

"There are still some that will not set foot on the property, it's just too painful for them," Hill said. "I speak out because people need to hear about the school... This is a history that needs to be told, and we're not done telling it."

When she found out about the Wenjack Railway Walk, Hill said she felt excited for the young people organizing it.

"To me, that shows that they're actually willing to learn, they're willing to engage. That's a good thing," she said.

Hill said she will be marching alongside the students, all the way from Victoria Park to Eastwood Collegiate.