The death of Queen Elizabeth II and the mass mourning that followed is bringing deep-seated trauma for some Indigenous people, including a prominent BC matriarch who survived a residential institution. “It hurts me to see people when they respect [the queen] so much,” Doreen Manuel said in an interview with Global News, adding, “I think the average person just doesn’t stop to think about the genocide and the effects that genocide had on us. they’re just celebrating a woman they didn’t even know.” Story continues below ad Now serving as director of the Bosa Center for Film and Animation at Capilano University in North Vancouver, Manuel established many of the programs that students follow as they begin a new term. What few of them know about the filmmaker and educator is the trauma she carries as a survivor of the Port Alberni, BC, residential facility. “They beat me, tied me up, starved me. I held my head under water until I passed out. I was just a kid,” Manuel said of her experience in the assimilation institution in the 1960s. Manuel directly accuses the monarchy of being responsible for perpetuating and supporting the systemic abuse she and generations of her family suffered. The 62-year-old says she still has nightmares, insomnia and sleeps with a night light because of the horrors she experienced as a child in the residential school system.
Read more: Indigenous leader calls for new reconciliation deal with monarchy
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Indigenous leader calls for new reconciliation deal with monarchy
“This monarchy and this government has sanctioned the genocide of my people, sanctioned the rape and murder of children … to me and to many of my people who have suffered like me, that’s what it meant,” he said. Manuel said she had to block social media and the people in her life to get over the Queen’s death and the mass adoration that followed. Story continues below ad “They got rich from our lands while we lived in poverty, while we starved to death. I ate chicken feet when I was a little girl because I had nothing else to eat,” she said. At the time, her father, Jorge Manuel – a legendary leader known by many today as the visionary behind the modern reconciliation movement – was traveling the world fighting for indigenous sovereignty around the world. 1:48 Queen Elizabeth II’s death stirs mixed feelings among Indigenous Canadians Queen Elizabeth II’s death stirs mixed feelings among Indigenous Canadians “I think this country should spend more time building a relationship with us. We are the government with which they should establish their relationship. This is what my father and leaders before him asked for: we must be recognized as sovereign nations,” Manuel said. Trending Stories
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Her father helped lead a grassroots campaign called the Express Constitution that traveled by train to the capital 40 years ago, laying the groundwork for the decolonization movement that continues today. Story continues below ad
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The community initiative was sparked when then-Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau celebrated the signing of a proclamation with Queen Elizabeth II formally transferring the constitution from the United Kingdom to Canada in 1982, without Indigenous consent. Manuel said it would likely take another similar effort to lead to any meaningful action from the monarch today. “The hour [during the Constitution Express], the mayor of Ottawa went on the radio asking everyone to open their homes to us and let us in and they did. There was a lot of public support,” he said. Continuing her father’s fight against oppression, Manuel says the royal family must take more action to promote truth and reconciliation, reparations for indigenous communities and support the “land return” movement.
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Story continues below ad Diana Day with the First Nations Women’s Peaceful Union echoes Manuel’s calls for action, while also urging King Charles to immediately denounce the Doctrine of Discovery, a philosophy that legitimized the colonization of indigenous peoples around the world. “We’ve fought with them in all the wars and helped establish all of Canada and then we’ve been left behind … we’re thinking about the need for healing to happen and this might be the time for that to happen.” That healing can only be possible, Day says, if indigenous communities decide how funds are allocated for culturally safe programs, which she believes the monarch should play a role in providing. 1:41 Indigenous leaders bemoan Queen’s lack of reconciliation action Indigenous leaders bemoan Queen’s lack of reconciliation action “King Charles has a duty to fulfill the responsibilities that Great Britain has to First Nations people and to Canada … we need an army of allies to help us raise our concerns and ask why a treatment center has not been established in [Vancouver’s] In the downtown Eastside, we now need a residential treatment center and on-demand treatment,” Day said. Story continues below ad For Manuel, healing happens when he focuses on helping others. “There’s so much need all the time and I just forget what I’m going through, what’s hurting me and I just focus on that and it always gets me through,” Manuel said. It’s a powerful example of the sensitivity that’s needed right now, as survivors like Manuel work to move forward, overcoming the trauma.
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The Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line (1-866-925-4419) is available 24 hours a day for anyone experiencing pain or distress as a result of their residential school experience. © 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
