Determined walkers, bikers and runners completed 43 laps around the blue track in Ohsweken Saturday to symbolize the 17 km distance it would be to run from Brantford to Six Nations for Mohawk Institute escapees.
The Run, Walk and Ride for the Park raised more than $7,000 for the construction of the Mohawk Village Memorial Park, a commemorative space in progress beside the former Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford.
Survivors Jon Elliott (the “chief runaway”); Sherlene Bomberry, Roberta Hill and Dawn Hill were among the Mohawk Institute attendees who organized the event, which was in honour of all who attended the institute.
Research to date shows about 100 kids died while attending the school, which was a government-sponsored and church-run school aimed at assimilating Indigenous children into Canadian culture.
Elliott is 87 years old. He was forced to attend the Mush Hole in Brantford from age 10 to 15. He ran away from the Mush Hole so many times, he lost count.
It’s nicknamed The Mush Hole in reference to the endless bowls of bland, sticky porridge the kids were forced to eat, while the teachers and staff enjoyed the fresh eggs and fruit from the school’s farm. And sometimes even bacon. The kids didn’t get that.
They got Mush. Always and forever, they got Mush.
Jon paid for it every time he tried to run away to freedom, he said, as walkers and runners recovered under tents on Saturday, enjoying the sun-drenched and positive energy that hung in the air as they reminisced about their time at the Mush Hole.
Elliott said whenever he was inevitably caught and returned to the Mush Hole, he was beaten severely by the notorious headmaster, Mr. Zimmerman, a strict disciplinarian who instilled fear in every child who attended that school, a place that should more accurately be described as a child labour camp.
Elliott said no matter how many times he ran away, he was never sent to reform school.
The authorities at the Mohawk Institute wanted to keep him at the school.
They saw him as valuable because of the bond he had with the horse he used to plow the school’s farm fields with.
The horse only understood Mohawk, the language Jon used when speaking with the workhorse during those long hours in the fields, performing what would today equate to child labour.
The Mohawk Village Memorial Park aims to be a space where the dignity of survivors and all those who attended the Mohawk Institute will be recognized.
It will include a pavilion, fire pit, stage area, children’s play area, memorial circle, orchard and water feature/pond.
