A Journey of Discovery, Truth and Reconciliation | Cecelia Reekie | TEDxLangleyED

I want to begin by acknowledging Kwantlen Cates and Matsui first nation as they have been huge supporters in my life for the last 20 years and it's the community that I'm able to live work and raise my family in so thank you I'm gonna share a journey with you and it's my journey it's my very personal journey and I ask you to come along with me walk beside me for the next 18 minutes put everything down put it aside and just walk with me I was born in June in 1963 my mom lived in Butte Dale with her family my mom was a 15 year old girl who found herself pregnant tough times in the 1960s to be unwed 15 and pregnant she had met my dad because my dad Aboriginal people including my dad would come and fish out of the cannery in Butte tail and that's where they met and that's where their relationship began it's always interesting to find out people who know Butte do where I'm talking about which is in the north coast of British Columbia very small community but my mum knew she would have to give me up for adoption and I was born in Prince Rupert and they put the nurses put me in the back of the nursery with the floor-to-ceiling that's best curtain around the bassinet in order that if my mum walked by she wouldn't be able to see me so my mom never held me she never saw me she had to give me a name she named me and then she left the hospital and she left that little girl behind and she never forgot about me though when I left the hospital I went to a foster home where I spent six weeks I still wonder about that foster family who held me who fed me who nurtured me I'm looking for them still today because they're an important part of my puzzle that I'm trying to put together after I was with my foster family for six weeks the social worker moved me to who would eventually become my adoptive family my adoptive mom and dad my dad was a United Church minister and my mom was an elementary school teacher and they were living in a very small very remote Aboriginal community in northern British Columbia at that time was called port Simpson is now called lac lambs and my dad was the minister there and in that community mom and dad became very good friends with a young couple and that young couple had two children there's sue on the Left myself in the middle and Tom on the right an uncle Murray and out Louise became very good friends with my mom and dad so we grew up calling them out Louise and uncle Murray and this was their two children and I'm about six months old in that picture growing up my parents had always talked about adoption it wasn't something foreign to me it wasn't a conversation that was strained and my parents had always said when you're ready to search when you're ready to find out we will help in any way we can and although at times growing up I thought about it typically through my teenage years but it wasn't until I had my first son David and I was 24 years old and I had David in 1887 and it's very hard to put into words what the feeling was when I held David for the first time because David was the first person in my life I was biologically connected to and that was very powerful because we all need connections we all need connections and I realized then that I needed to find out my truth and I needed to find out my story and I needed to do it not only for me but for my children they deserved to know I decided I would search out and I searched out and I found my mom back in 1989 there was a very quick reunion when that happened very fast she lives in Delta she's only 40 minutes away from me and here I had wondered are you okay where do you live what do you do are you married do you have children all those typical questions that I would ask myself and I met her I went over that night and we met her and she was married she didn't have children after me so I'm her only child she had always wondered about me had never forgotten about me had actually written poems to me that she gave me the night I met her I have her only two grandchildren it was a very powerful connection during that night I also asked her who my birth father was and luckily she was very honest with me she said to me your birth father's name is Cecil ball and he comes from Kitimat village I went home that night because I had promised my adoptive parents I would call them and let them know how the meeting went with my birth mom I went home that night and I called my adoptive parents and we were talking about my mom and what she does and where she lives how it went and I said she told me who my dad was and I said I want to find him because he's culturally who I believe I am and who I thought I was I needed to find out who he was so I said to my mom and dad I want to find him his name is Cecil Paul he comes from Kitimat I'm gonna start to look for him and interestingly my mom said to me what she said to my dad John didn't aunt Louise come from Kitimat and was an aunt Louisa's made a name Paul and could aunt Louise be related to Cecilia and my mom said I'm gonna call aunt Louise right now and ask her I said okay and she hung up the phone with me and I sat by the phone and I waited and I waited and I waited my mom hung up with me and called aunt Louise who was still living in Prince Herbert with uncle Murray and she says Celia just found her birth mom tonight and birth mom is saying that dad is Cecil Paul from Kitimat and we're just wondering if you're related and my auntie Louise said to my mom I have to go but I'll call you back we waited some more and some more and some more and my auntie Louise called her older brother Cecil Paul and she said did you have a daughter back in 1963 and he went very quiet and he said yes and my auntie though he said I've known her her whole life this picture is of me with my cousins in our community in my language we don't have a word for cousins we are raised as brothers and sisters so really had I been raised in my community with my family they would have been my brothers and sisters it's a very powerful picture and it's a very powerful story of connection although we didn't know my uncle Murray would often wonder where did I come from who did I belong to who is this little girl as he held me and it wasn't until 24 years later that all of a sudden everything started to make sense it was very safe and wonderful to have aunt Louise be my natural aunt and have that relationship with my adoptive parents because I can only imagine as a parent what it would be like to know that your child's going through a reunion with their family and how scary that might be so mom and dad I know we're quite relieved to know that aunt Louise was a part of my family because she wasn't a stranger it was very safe my dad flew down to Vancouver to meet me and this is we're meeting for the first time and there's my mom my dad myself and my auntie Louise and my auntie Louise and I are very close and my dad and I are very close and when I look at that picture I realized everybody came together all my parents came together to do what was best for her to do what was best for me and I'm very lucky I also knew now finally where I belonged I belong to the Heisler First Nation my Aboriginal name new Yan c6 Duke Leah I know who I am I'm a proud Aboriginal women who has walked in the two worlds I know that and that's a gift as I got to know my dad and spend time with my dad he would start to share stories with me stories of a young boy at ten being sent to residential school and the day that happened and how residential school changed who he was and had intergenerational effects on all his children as well Sherrod his truth I began to learn more about residential schools and I'll be honest I didn't know anything about residential schools I didn't know about that truth and that history and so it was through my dad that I began to hear those stories this is the Alberni residential school on Vancouver Island this is where my dad was sent it's a pretty scary looking building to me and I can't imagine being ten years old and sent away from your family and not having contact with them for four years what that did to that little boy in 2008 the former Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized to all Aboriginal people in Canada for what happened in residential schools because what was happening survivors like my dad were finding their voice being able to share about the experiences that they went through and they were horrendous experiences out of the apology came the Truth and Reconciliation Commission the Truth and Reconciliation Commission came to Vancouver in 2013 and it just so happened that I had volunteered for like all four days to help out at this event and my dad phoned me just before it started and said sweetheart I'm coming to Vancouver and could I stay with you and I'm like yeah well sure but I'm going to this event I'm volunteering but you can come I said would you like to come and sell about residential schools yeah I'd like to come so for the first day he was very quiet and he just watched the second day was amazing because there was university students and students from districts around the province who were coming and they were learning this history and dad was sitting with survivors people he had gone to school with and all of a sudden my dad was getting more comfortable when I one of dads friends said to him you should testify show your experience have it recorded my dad said no we were driving home that night and my dad said sweetheart I think I want to testify I said that's great he did testify and when we got home that the next night he wanted to show me the DVD of his testimony and it was so hard to watch it was very emotional he was very truthful about his experiences when he went in to testify I gave him a hug and I whispered in his ear you're doing this so that we don't forget so that we don't forget my dad's story and the 80,000 other survivors that are still alive today we don't want to forget and we can't forget this is my dad and I at the truth reconciliation walk 80,000 people showed up in the pouring rain and the wind and they walked and I whispered in my dad's here and I said they're walking for you they're walking for you as a survivor and I realized looking at this picture of my dad that's no longer alone this was a journey that many survivors had to do alone but not anymore this past June the truth and reconciliation was closing and they were releasing their interim report in Ottawa and I said to my husband I have to go I need to be in Ottawa and I want to go alone I want to do its journey all by myself my husband said okay off to Otto I went on the Sunday there was a truth of reconciliation walk and there was a virginal people non Aboriginal people religious organisations they were all marching and I was marching with a couple of women and we were drumming and singing and I was wearing my button blanket what was interesting we walked from Gatineau Quebec to downtown Ottawa I didn't realize how many churches were in Ottawa and Gatineau Quebec there's a lot of churches as we were marching they had organized the church bells to toll was a very powerful moment for me because it was my moment of reconciliation I had been raised in the United Church I had been raised in the United Church I had a dad who went to residential school and this was my form of reconciliation my form of understanding and those church bells were incredibly powerful and I'm very lucky that I was able to go to Ottawa to experience that the interim report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission had 94 recommendations some of them are complicated some of them are responsibilities to government in different levels of government and some of them are just for you and I and I ask you what's your commitment to reconciliation on a personal level on a professional level what's your commitment to reconciliation of understanding this truth my commitment is sharing my dad's story and when I phoned my dad to say I'm gonna be doing this I said I need your permission and he said yes it's important people know the truth my dad deserves that my dad deserves that everybody understands the truth in the history of residential but even more beyond that is that you need to understand whether you work in schools whether you're a parent or a grandparent you need to understand that every child has a story take the time to find out what their stories are so that they don't have to walk alone that you're with them so I thank you for walking the journey with me all my relations

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 16,869

Rating: 4.7482519 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Canada, Education, Childhood, Children, Community, Discrimination, Education reform, Hardship, Human Rights, Identity, Race, Schools, Social Justice, Truth

Id: L-KcMefnqUs

Length: 17min 44sec (1064 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 10 2016