Artifactuality, season 2, episode 3.
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:00:01] On this episode of Artifactuality, can art help us recognize injustice? Can it help us face the wrongs of the past? Can it help us heal and move forward? My name is Kim Thuy. On this podcast from the Canadian Museum of History, together we explore what objects and stories from the past can tell us about who we are today. What will resonate tomorrow? How will the events unfolding around us be remembered in the future?
Stanley Hunt [00:00:39] You know, I have always believed in the Creator. I believe that right at this split second, we’re living in the Creator’s creation.
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:00:46] Master Carver Stanley C Hunt is a member of the Kwagiulth First Nation. He lives in the northeast of Vancouver Island in the village of T’sakis, also known as Fort Rupert.
Stanley C. Hunt [00:00:59] I look out my window and we look in our bay, and we see every single day, in every single second, that bay is changing. There’s eagles and ravens and sometimes killer whales, sometimes humpback whales. The tide comes in. The tide goes out every day. It’s sea crabs and clams. And it’s remarkable. And I truly do believe that that’s a Creator’s creation.
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:01:27] Stanley created an impressive monument to honor the victims of Canada’s Residential School system. It’s carved out of a huge red cedar log and stands almost 20ft tall. It features carvings of 130 children’s faces. The expressions are serious and sorrowful. None of them are smiling. They’re painted black and outlined in orange, the color associated with Every Child Matters. It’s a movement to honor the lives lost in Canada’s Residential Schools. These institutions operated from coast to coast to coast for more than a century. They were created to break up Indigenous families and eliminate their cultures and languages. Many of the staff and clergy who ran the schools emotionally, physically and sexually abused thousands of children. Stanley was inspired to create the memorial when he heard about the unmarked graves at a former Residential School site near Kamloops, British Columbia, in 2021. Stanley remembers the moment he heard about it. He was carving a totem pole with his nephew, Mervin.
Stanley C. Hunt [00:02:58] I was working on another memorial pole in my backyard where I do totem poles, and I remember we had the radio on listening, and they were talking about 215 children. And Mervin and I stopped and we listened to it. And… it’s hard to describe a moment like that when you hear that type of news. It didn’t seem real. So we listened to the whole broadcast and we looked at each other and we were both emotionally distraught, and it was hard to hide your emotions and then watch the news every day that passed to see if it was real or not. It certainly was. There’s lots of deep discussions about that, how that could possibly have happened.
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:03:51] Stanley’s parents and two of his oldest siblings were taken to Residential Schools. He and his other 14 siblings were part of the Sixties Scoop, an era when Indigenous children were taken from their families and placed in non-Indigenous homes. Stanley says he and his family rarely talked about their experiences.
Stanley C. Hunt [00:04:18] We’ve always had an inkling of what it might have been like. There was always something that you knew it happened, but you couldn’t put your finger on it. Well, I know my dad. One time he was hungry and he kept a cube of sugar in his pocket, and somehow they found it. And I guess they used to take the shirt off and use, like, a hickory stick. And they beat him for that little piece of sugar. He did tell us that.
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:04:55] Stanley was on a mission to create a monument that would bear witness to colonial harm and pain, a monument that could open doors to recognition and healing.
Stanley C. Hunt [00:05:09] Out of all the, sculptures that I’ve made, they’re basically all over the world. But that sculpture, this sculpture that took a lot of effort and a lot of emotion to to complete it. You know, not all history is about happiness and beauty and things that happen. There is some parts of history that people don’t want to ever talk about. You couldn’t even imagine people talking about this 100 years ago.
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:05:43] At the top of the monument, Stanley carved a large raven. He says in his culture, the raven represents the Creator.
Stanley C. Hunt [00:05:54] This raven is looking down on top of the monument, down the center of the ravens, cradling the seed of life in its beak, and his wings are fully extended out there, more down so as to comfort the children, to bring them home. And all of the faces that are on the monument are all, every face is different. And I inverted the cross deliberately on the monument. And I inverted the maple leaf and the RCMP and North-West Mounted Police deliberately. But at the same time, when the ravens looking down, that monument is looking straight down the front of it, where the cross is, the raven sees that cross right side up. And the Raven is going to help us make this right. Bring those children home. He’s calling for their spirits to come home, and I believe it’s going to work and that it’s going to happen and that we’re going to find these children. And I want the government to just find them. I want them to name them because they all had names. They could have all had careers. We don’t know what they could have become. They could have become artists. They could have become writers, painters. They could have become dreamers, doctors, lawyers, could have been anything. But they were not given a chance to do that.
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:07:39] Stanley worked on the monument for almost a year with help from two of his nephews. When the carving was complete, he invited people from the community to help paint it, along with members of the RCMP and the Coast Guard. Stanley remembers the moment the monument was taken out of the tent where it was created.
Stanley C. Hunt [00:08:05] I say that’s the split second it was born to the world. So I wrote that exact time down. Once the tent came off of it, and it’s the first time we could back up and see it because of the tent you’re looking at it from four feet away, it was remarkable to see that for the first time. I mean, you had that image in your head, but to see it in real life, it did take you a moment to stop and look and think about all what just happened before you got to this moment, to be able to see it.
Kim Thuy [00:08:48] I guess it became a life.
Stanley C. Hunt [00:08:51] It did. I’ll tell you one thing about that happened after it was undressed and was out by itself. I have my granddaughter, Jade. She’s seven years old and she’s very non-verbal. She’s absolutely beautiful, but she has her own little challenges in her life. And, its just happenstance, there wasn’t a plan, it wasn’t thought out or anything, but she has a little orange and black sunhat on, a little jean jacket, a little red summer dress, and on her own she walks over to the monument and stands beside it, and she puts her hands up to it, but she doesn’t touch it. Her hands are about a quarter of an inch away from touching it, and she just closed her eyes and just stood there. I don’t know what she was thinking. She can’t tell us what she’s thinking. I hope one day she’ll be able to tell me what she was thinking.
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:10:00] Stanley knew he wanted the monument to be seen by as many people as possible, so he approached the Canadian Museum of History. Kaitlin McCormick is the curator who worked with Stanley on the acquisition.
Kaitlin McCormick [00:10:16] I think what’s so special about it is that it really is a tangible object that will allow Canadians and visitors to connect to the history of Residential Schools. This is part of the history here that we’re currently in the period of revisiting, and we’re always working on how to better and more effectively communicate that history in collaboration with individuals who survived Residential Schools or who are connected to them. And so I think the most important part of it is that it’s going to help us to bear witness to that history and to take ownership of it as Canadians and also as employees of the National Museum.
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:10:53] But first, how do you transport a 6-to-7,000 pound work of art across five provinces? Moving the monument from Vancouver Island to Gatineau, Quebec involved a flatbed truck, a hovercraft and a catamaran. The monument was uncovered throughout its journey so the children’s faces could bear witness to each stage.
Stanley C. Hunt [00:11:22] I believe that totem poles all have their own spirit, and I believe this one, I wanted him to see this entire journey that he was being honored by. Being escorted by the RCMP right through to Ottawa from Fort Rupert. I wanted them to see the Canadian Navy. They weren’t just escorting us into the harbor with, HMCS Edmonton, on the bow of the Edmonton there was like 30 or 40 Navy guys all standing on the bow at ease, but they all had on their white uniforms. I personally, I don’t know of anything like this that has ever happened that had this much support by the RCMP, the Coast Guard, the Canadian Navy… the Canadian Army brought it from Vancouver to Regina on the back of one of the Army trucks.
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:12:21] The monument made several stops during the journey at each location. A ceremony was held to honor the victims. The first one was in Stanley’s backyard.
Stanley C. Hunt [00:12:34] We had four toys, little sailboats that my cousin Calvin made. Four little pairs of moccasins, four children’s t-shirts, orange t-shirts, and we had four plates of food. We did that for the children. We were sending all of that to them so they knew we were coming for them.
Kim Thuy [00:13:03] So what was it like seeing Residential School survivors engage with the monument?
Stanley C. Hunt [00:13:10] Oh, that was incredible. In every stop that we stopped and gave our speeches and songs and talked, and there were people that would come up and they would and said, “Is it okay, if I put my hand on this”. And of course they put the hand and they just close their eyes and it just totally … Just some of them just broke right down and, just, “I’ve never spoken to anybody about what happened to me in Residential School.” And they’d sit there and tell us a story. And that happened over and over and over and over again. People would walk up and bring in flowers and … Just to put their hand up and hold on to it, and they’d just just break right down and just have a very emotional moment. And they’d thank you for bringing this to them and for them to see it. And thank you for making this. And this is something that we all need to see in those many, many tears anyway on their journey.
Kim Thuy [00:14:15] Maybe it brought also a bit of healing.
Stanley C. Hunt [00:14:20] I believe it does, yeah. I think that’s what it was made for us to heal, to bring forth the truth. And I think from what I’ve witnessed so far, you know, from Port Authority to Ottawa, I believe that it’s helping people.
Kim Thuy [00:14:38] To be seen and to be heard, I think.
Stanley C. Hunt [00:14:41] And to just, just hear their own voice saying their own story. You know, a lot of them said they’ve never spoken to anybody about what happened to them. And then here they are talking in front of 100 people or more, and telling them what they went through.
Stanley C. Hunt [00:15:11] We walk through the museum a day or two after we arrived. We did drum it and sing it into the museum at the back in the delivery dock or whatever. We were all dressed in our regalia, and we’re helping the truck bring it in, and then singing. But when I was there, to me, I thought I was hugely honored that the museum would even consider having a piece that is probably going to be pretty controversial in its lifetime, because I don’t know of any monument anywhere in the world that has a cross deliberately made upside down. It’s not to insult anybody, neither. It’s to mark a very dark time in history where some very, very bad decisions were made. That’s what that’s amrking. I love Canada. Proud to be Canadian. I’m proud to be Kuagiulth. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else in the world. But every country must have their closet full of these ugly little secrets that they don’t really want anybody to know. But when it comes out that once it’s known and it’s a fact, I think they should just help us understand the truth by giving us all the information that they’ve hidden.
Kaitlin McCormick [00:16:47] So the monument, when it came in it was removed from the flatbed and it was brought in…
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:16:52] I’m at the museum with Kaitlin McCormick. She’s the Curator of Indigenous Histories and Contemporary Cultures for Western Canada. Kaitlin shows me where the monument is currently being stored.
Kim Thuy [00:17:05] Oh, Kaitlin, where are we now? What are we looking at? Because everything is so big.
Kaitlin McCormick [00:17:11] So we rotate items, on and off display. And so when an item is currently not on display in the galleries, a large item, it’ll come down here. And this is where we care for those items when they’re not in the gallery spaces.
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:17:27] The monument is currently laying down and wrapped in a thick plastic cover.
Kim Thuy [00:17:33] It is so big that I think you can hear me walk, alongside the monument. Right. And we can have basically a whole conversation between, you know, from the beginning to the end.
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:17:47] Caitlyn says Stanley’s desire to work with the museum means a lot. Since 1978, the museum has been repatriating objects to Indigenous communities. Staff have made it a priority to build and strengthen those relationships.
Kaitlin McCormick [00:18:05] When it came here, we saw that spirit of reconciliation in the Museum as well. When the monument arrived, Stan invited museum staff to help wash the monument so you can see that as an act of care. So as soon as it arrived, we were all kind of taking warm water and washing because it had been on the road. And then also to even help finish painting up, details that had been kind of scraped or rubbed off in the course of its journey outside. So that was really special. And like for those of us who were lucky enough to attend its arrival and the kind of reception and ceremony we all got to participate in caring for it from the minute it arrived, from washing it and painting it, to participating in some of the ceremony outside. So it was really special and inclusive. And I think everyone here at the museum who I saw felt overwhelmed with emotion at being involved in this amazing event. And to know that this is a work that the artist and his family wanted here in the National collection was, was really special and unifying.
Kim Thuy [00:19:11] I would say that, you know, being here, having the opportunity to stand next to it and to see the size of it, it’s striking in the sense that you realize how important and massive you know, our history needs to be understood and felt, especially, I think, even if we didn’t know enough about our history just standing by this monument, you can feel it, you know, and, I, I get all emotional to be here in the presence of all these children. Yeah.
Kaitlin McCormick [00:19:48] And you’re not alone. I mean, this is like, this piece has a power to it. It’s a living being. And it also has this emotional power that connects everyone who sees it and who becomes in its presence.
Kim Thuy [00:20:03] I think it’s the right decision that it’s… because it’s beyond art. Art is just the vehicle. But I think this piece is part of, yeah, history in, you know, our society, our culture, and also it’s leading us, it’s showing us the way to take for the future almost.
Kaitlin McCormick [00:20:25] Exactly. And I think it’s because it’s so inclusive. That’s the way forward, is to work together to recognize that we have different histories and different heritages and different experiences in this country, but that we can work together to be better and to do things in a good way. And I think that this piece really inspires that spirit in people.
Kim Thuy [00:20:51] I put my hand on the plastic covering the monument. Even with the covering, the room is filled with the smell of cedar. I can feel the carved shapes in the wood. Just want to say we’re sorry. Sorry. You can feel it. It has this energy coming out from this piece and just the size of it, you know, it makes you feel very, I don’t know, humble facing, I guess, human nature, the dark side of human nature, and for us to remind us that it can overtake us. And if we’re not careful, we will fall into these actions which are not possible to be repaired. We can only hope that we won’t make them again.
Kaitlin McCormick [00:21:56] I think that we’re in a transitional moment as a country right now, and that this particular piece coming here will help with that transformation and will have this effect of helping people to bear witness and then kind of will change the way that they see this history.
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:22:19] Kaitlin hopes museum visitors will be inspired to reflect on the role they can play in reconciliation. Stanley says he hopes people see the truth.
Stanley C. Hunt [00:22:33] The truth that this isn’t just a story, that this really did happen. I believe it’s going to give us a focal point to understand, to discuss this story. I don’t think that people ever wanted to really hear a story of a Residential School survivor. I don’t think that people were ready for, you know, a lot of the I think people thought it was all made up. And I hope that this gives us a focal point that it’s okay to speak and it’s okay to shed tears, and it’s okay to even be angry. I hope it opens people’s eyes and that people that don’t even want to hear about it are going to hear about it, and that they just let people talk.
Kim Thuy [00:23:26] Stan, it was really a privilege for me to get to talk to you. Thank you for your talent and thank you for the audacity.
Stanley C. Hunt [00:23:38] Well, thank you for even letting me tell my story. And thanks for listening and maybe helping to spread it to the world. I appreciate that, I really do.
Kim Thuy [00:23:53] Thank you.
Stanley C. Hunt [00:23:54] And in our language we say Gilakas’la.
Kim Thuy [00:23:57] Gilakas’la.
Stanley C. Hunt [00:23:59] Gilakas’la. That’s thank you and have a good day.
Kim Thuy [00:24:04] Thank you.
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:24:11] Master Carver Stanley C Hunt talking about his piece called “Indian Residential School Memorial Monument”. Thanks also to Kaitlin McCormick, a curator at the Canadian Museum of History. Thanks for listening to Artifactuality, a podcast from the Canadian Museum of History. I’m Kim Thuy. Artifactuality is produced by Antica Productions. Ann Lang is our producer. Soobin Kim is the researcher. Laura Regehr and Stuart Coxe are Executive Producers at Antica. Mixing and sound design by Alain Derbez. Jenny Ellison, Robyn Jeffrey and Steve McCullough of the Canadian Museum of History are the executive producers of this podcast. Check out historymuseum.ca for more stories, articles and exhibitions from the museum. For more information about Stanley C Hunt and the Indian Residential School Memorial Monument, check out the links in our show notes.