Foster-care system maintains brutality of residential schools, Natuashish woman tells inquiry

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

A woman who delivered powerful testimony to an inquiry into children in care hopes that no other Innu children from Labrador are moved thousands of kilometres away from their homes and family. 

"I was alone. I felt alone for many years," said Natuashish resident Munik Penashue, who spoke publicly about her experiences to the Inquiry Respecting the Treatment, Experiences and Outcomes of Innu Children in the Child Protection System.

"There was no comfort or friend or brother or grandma. There was no one. There was only white people." 

Before she was taken into care, Penashue's parents had been struggling and she began to act out as a child, she told the inquiry.

Child protection workers placed her in care in 2005, when she was 13. She was taken to North Bay, Ont. — 1,600 kilometres from her hometown. 

Penashue said she could only think about when she would see her people, friends, family or speak Innu-aimun again. She said she thought child protection workers would help her mother get her back but that there was no support for her family. 

WATCH | See Munik Penashue describe what happened when she was put in care: 

Taken from her home and family, Munik Penashue details her harrowing experience of foster care

12 months ago

Duration 1:25

Munik Penashue was moved from northern Labrador to North Bay, Ont., and surrounded by white people. Testifying in Natuashish at the inquiry into the treatment of Innu children in care, she wept as described the loneliness and devastation of her experience.

Penashue said her grandmother would phone and implore her to remember her language, culture, being out on the land, and who she was.

But the foster parents, she said, would tell her to speak English, even when talking to her grandmother over the phone. 

Penashue said she tried to take her own life, as she felt she didn't belong in North Bay. But when she returned to Natuashish, she felt she didn't belong there any more either.

Years later, she's now working toward a positive future for herself and her children. 

She said she hopes no other child is taken so far away from their family, culture and language in the future. 

The inquiry is investigating the history of the child protection system and Innu, to make recommendations that Innu hope will lead to them taking over their own child welfare. 

Penashue was one of the last to speak during the community session at the Natuashish Healing Lodge. The informal sessions are significantly different than the formal hearings set to begin in January. The inquiry will delve into the history of the child protection system.

Commissioner Mike Devine said it will look at current legislation, policies and practices and hear from different experts and stakeholders in the system. 

In March, a round of open community meetings will be held in each community for any remaining people who wish to speak, and formal hearings on the history of child welfare will be held in the future as well. 

Document delays pushing death investigations to around April 

Commissioners were hoping to start investigations into the death of six children who had experiences with the child protection system early in the new year; however, those investigations have been postponed until around April. 

Devine said it takes time to get the necessary documents from different provincial agencies but those documents are now with the families. 

"We've been sort of shifting around different pieces of work. Of course, there's lots of work that's happening, that is in the background and getting documentations and doing all the legal work necessary for that, so that does take some time," Devine said. 

Similarities between residential schools and foster home 

During her testimony, Penashue drew attention to similarities between residential schools and the current foster system. In high school, Penashue learned about the residential school system and was taught the last school closed in 1998, but she said that system continues to this day with foster homes. 

"Residential school is not over. We have residential foster homes now," Penashue said. 

Penashue said children were taken far away to residential schools, where priests and teachers would cut Indigenous children's hair, stop them from speaking their language and dress them in white people's clothing.

Penashue said it was too similar to her own experience. 

"The similarities between how I grew up and the residential school systems is very, very hard. It's very sad and heartbreaking. Makes you wonder, when is it going to stop?"

Commissioner Anastasia Qupee said it can be intense to listen to people share their personal stories but there's positivity that can come from it. 

"I could sense that there is hope, and that's what gives me hope," Qupee said.

"I can sense people saying that they want to make their lives better, they want to make their children's lives better and the systems that have impacted them and how the system has impacted them and how they would not like to see that in the future."

Devine said they still hope to produce their final report on schedule in October 2024. 

The Inquiry website contains phone numbers for anyone in Natuashish, Sheshatshiu, or elsewhere in the Labrador-Grenfell region, looking for healing and crisis help.

Mental health counselling and crisis support is also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the Hope for Wellness hotline at 1-855-242-3310 or by online chat.

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