The bodies discovered at the Kamloops Residential School in 2021 was the cause of the creation of the documentary "Can they hear us now". Photo courtesy FIVEONE Productions

By Tommy Osborne

Residential School Survivor

Residential school survivor shares her story through documentary showing at UNBC

Mar 8, 2024 | 2:43 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Sonya Rock of the Gitxsan Nation, Frog Clan, is one of thousands of Indigenous people who suffered at the hands of residential schools. Friday, she shared her story at UNBC through a documentary featuring her, “Can they hear us now?”

“We were made to feel that we’re a burden, that we did not belong there. I remember I was crying and I asked, ‘when is my mom and dad coming to get me?’ And I remember the lady supervisor telling me, she said, ‘you’re nothing but a bastard, and your mom and dad didn’t want you. That’s the reason why you’re here,” Rock said.

“We all went through the physical (abuse), the beatings, the torture, the sexual abuse, and just the daily mental abuse that we went through at the residential school. It was a very lonely place,” she continued.

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“Can they hear us now?” was created when Rock, alongside the rest of the country, learned of the 215 Indigenous children buried at the site of a former Kamloops residential school in 2021. Rock explained this happened close to Canada Day, and she spoke out, believing that Canada Day should not be a celebration, but a day of mourning.

“I said in my spoken language that I want Canada to know that I’m not celebrating Canada Day because Canada is in mourning because of the 215 children, the 215 little ancestors that were found at the Kamloops Residential School, and that there should be no celebration in Canada,” she said.

Not only did this serve as a grim reminder of the dark history of residential schools, it also showed how the intergenerational trauma of residential schools impacts the Indigenous community today.

“You see our friends on the street, they are the children of residential school survivors, or they are the grandchildren of the residential school survivors. So you have to understand the pain that they’re going through as well,” Rock said.

Rock’s entire family went through residential schools, and she explained the trauma resulted in her family falling into alcoholism.

“It wasn’t until my brother came to us — he drank heavily, as all of us did — and he just said to us one day ‘if I take one more drink, I could feel it in my bones, I’m dead.’ So he went to treatment, and then when he came back, my mother went and my mother gathered us and said, even though she understood about colonialism, she said, ‘I took you down this path of alcoholism and I’m going to take each one of you one by one, by the hand, and pull you out of that lifestyle. And that’s exactly what she did,'” Rock explained.

“All of us ended up going to school, going back to school as adults. I was 29 when I went for my Bachelor of Education, and I’m going to be graduating with my master’s in May,” she continued.

Having lived through residential schools and the following trauma, Rock says there is hope for anyone out there struggling. While she credits a lot of her recover to her mother and family, she says to heal you must be dedicated to the work.

“You have to make up your mind of what you want in your life, because it really is up to you. Nobody else can do it for you. And once you decide to go through that journey of healing, you’ll never want to turn back. It’s a beautiful life.”

You can watch the full documentary on Youtube here.

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