Inter-Indigenous Online Resource - Interview with Sam Hunter, Peawanuck First Nation, Hudson Bay region, Canada

.    

This post is part of a larger online project that shares the positive and non-violent actions of Indigenous  people in different regions who have focused on overcoming the negative effects of colonization. The interviewees speak about the issues they were focused on, the approaches they took, tools/strategies they used, and they provide some insights about what they learned throughout the process.  

Specific situations may differ, but community members in one region or country may find that there is something to be gained from reading the first-hand experiences of people in other Indigenous communities. People who have initiated some positive change in their own life, their family or their communities may have something to share with people in other Indigenous communities who are coming up against a similar challenge.

The interviews are not heavily edited, and this resource is intended to reflect the experiences and opinions of the interviewees as faithfully as possible. The experiences and opinions of interviewees belong to them. 

If you have an experience that fits within this project, please email me at info@thelawofpeace.org to set up an interview.

INTERVIEW WITH SAM HUNTER

Name of Interviewee: Sam Hunter

Community:  Peawanuck  First Nation

Geographic region/location:  South Shore Hudson Bay, Northern Ontario, Canada

Role in community: Film-maker/tour guide

Consent provided.

Q: What is the issue you were facing?

I went to the residential school and I didn’t get anything out of it. I had to go seek for my own education which was a hard thing to do. Residential school, they tried to put something in your life that you didn’t want.  One of my siblings died in residential school. For many years his body was laid to rest in foreign soil. Thirty-seven years later his body was brought home. Radio segment and article on Charlie Hunter's re-burial At that time everything came back. I felt strongly that I didn’t want anything to do with the Catholic religion – I turned my back on that.One thing that came to me was ‘why did this happen?’.  I don’t think it is race any more or to assimilate people..…I think the first thing on the agenda was the resources. These are the things that I thought after my brother’s burial. I thought we need to control our own resources and land. One of the reasons why people are the way they are is that they don’t have control of their resources.  If you don’t have control of your resources you don’t have anything. You are like cattle inside a little parcel of land, the reservation. You are on welfare, you need resources to create jobs and everyone is stuck in this residential school mentality. People can’t get over that fence. 

Q: What did you do to deal with this?

I think that a lot of the people are going back to their own spirituality, going back to the land more, even the younger of generation…I find that the kids today,  a lot of the parents are taking their kids out on the land, teaching them how to hunt. Not only that, they are getting an education too. They are going back to the land and they are happy. Almost 90% of the kids back home are happy. Those that don’t go out onto the land – those kids are still stuck in a certain time in history. They can’t move forward or go backward in time – they are just stuck. A lot of reserves are like that – stuck in a certain time.

Q: Have you been involved in a project that helps people move over that hurdle?

I am starting to make films now. It’s good because it gives me freedom of expression, how to communicate. My instructors were helpful in that sense. They gave me some skills. It is a form of communication. It helped me realize and understand things.

For me, educating myself was effective. I am pretty sure I have a lot of knowledge, and seeing people come out from the woodwork and just be happy, looking to the future, looking to their kids’ future. A lot of reserves today – they cannot even see the future. Their kids are running around and they don’t even know where to go. They are just living with no future. Now, a lot of people are planning for their kids – the generation ahead. It really changes everything.

Q: Do you have children?

I have two girls. I am looking forward for them. I remember at one point in my life we wanted something, but didn’t know what it was. I was stuck in a point in time. Your life is like that inside a reserve. Everyone wants to be a doctor or lawyer or whatever you see on TV but you don’t know how to reach it. People learn how to be an administrator or social worker. That is fine and dandy but there are only so many positions in the community. They don’t get jobs. Now people are starting to find out what they have to do to make it in the real world. So one of my daughters, she wants to be a fashion designer. She is only 16 but I can tell she has the opportunity now. Lots of people younger than me in their 30s in social work, their chance of getting a job is nil. The kids coming out today, they know because their parents who are around my age they are looking out for their children. But parents who are older and who were deep in residential school, never really think about the future. I may be wrong, some may do that, but their kids who are in their 20s are struggling to get away from that mentality.

Q: You started talking about your brother who died and who was reburied…was that a point of change for you?

It made me think, why are people are always talking about residential school? That was in the past, let’s look to the future. When I heard about the Aboriginal Reconciliation Commission (Truth and Reconciliation Commission), I read about it, and I kind of figured that the idea 'reconciliation' came from someone in the House of Commons and I didn’t like it. It’s like someone saying, “I’m sorry for what happened". To me it’s good when someone says they’re sorry. When Harper said he was sorry, I accept that. But I don’t want someone to take the resources anymore. Aboriginal communities are doing okay, blocking roads. It’s peaceful. But the government still doesn’t listen. They need to listen.

Q: One thing in this project, I am looking at when people improve their lives, what are the obstacles?

Yeah, the challenges don’t come from outside the reserve. Its more I find the challenges come from within the community. Because the way the missionaries and Department of Indian Affairs created people, they want everyone to be the same. So if someone sticks out to make something out of themselves, they want to bring him down. I had to go look for my own funding outside from the community and it was very, very hard. I got accepted even though there were many applicants from all over the world and found my tuition easy, but getting the allowance from my community was very, very difficult. It took almost a year and even after it was accepted verbally, it took a couple of months to get it. Even though my tuition was paid for by another organization, I found that the reality of living in a reserve, the mentality is that everyone has to be on the same plane. But that’s not the way. If you work hard, you get more. But then, all the reserves are like that. I have been to a lot of reserves where people don’t work because there is no incentive. 

Q: You have told me about this challenge from your community….

The obstacles are not policies and guidelines. It’s people who make decisions, who don’t have an education. It’s funny because the chief and council system all across Canada, they are the highest form of Government - higher than the Assembly of First Nations. The native hierarchy is backwards. I believe it was designed that way. The chief in council system didn’t come from native people, it came from Government. It factionalizes. What happens is that they make all the decisions for the people. So people vote for their own dictator and it’s not their system. It’s the obstacle.

I got around it by being a pain, a thorn in their side. I knew what I wanted. I wanted a good life. A better life than what I had even though I was doing so-so. I wanted more than that. I just kept bugging the people even if I thought they didn’t like me. I didn’t phone anymore. I went to the office all the time, all the time and if someone didn’t talk to me, I just talked to different people at the band office constantly and I got the money. The only way to get over the obstacle is to keep on trying.

The strategy was just to persist.

Q: Did you get a good result? Did you achieve your goal?

Yeah, I’ve very sure. Before I went to school it was hard to understand how things work. Now, I can understand a lot of things. The first thing they teach in film is leadership. I remember I always wanted to make $40-50,000 a year. After I finished school I can probably make that in a short time.

Getting an education was a success.

Q: If you could say you were particularly proud of one thing, what would it be? And what were some unanticipated good results?

The proudest thing for me is that to be able to tell my kids, here’s what you have to do, because I did it. My dad, the only thing he said, but he didn’t know, but he had an idea, was “Go to school”. And that doesn’t mean anything. The way I tell my kids now, I say go to school and study something that you love, that you like. There’s a difference than just saying "go to school". I say, “You can have money, you can go back to the land”. Now they have something to look forward to. I was talking to my daughter yesterday and the amount of knowledge she has was so inspiring! Like wow, it’s crazy! She’s only turning 16 and she knows what she wants to do. She knows where to buy a house, which location. I didn’t have that when I was 16 – an idea of where I would be when I was older. She wants to be in New York City, Los Angeles and maybe have a house near Toronto. This is the difference between my parents saying, “go to school”.  She can see the connection between school and her dream. We talked about going back to the land for holidays and excursions – just enjoying life! And they are talking about the future! When I was growing up, we were stuck in a reserve and people were poor. Parents had one boat, and one motor and limited money, and the motor had to work. We had to make sure the resources and assets were operational. Now, with the opportunities we have, we don’t have to be poor anymore. Kids can have stuff, freedom. It’s fun. It’s not limited anymore. I don’t know what happened to a certain generation. Some people never left the borders of the reserve.It’s like they never went out. They ate canned food and didn’t even go hunting, starting getting sick with diabetes and overweight. It’s only recently that people even go out. So something happened mentally. I remember when I was a kid we went to church every day – 7 days a week. To me, it’s a waste of time. There’s a connection with Creator when you go out on the land. It’s a connection that you can feel. It cleanses your mind and your body.  Go out for a week, two weeks. When you come back to the community you get all cluttered.  It all comes back.

Q: When you look back at the journey to get educated, and you passed it on to your girls, when you first started, you wanted to do it for a reason, what were the unexpected results?

Yeah, one of them is opportunities. I just wanted to make movies to get a better life, but now people are offering me jobs. Money is a resource. It’s not a bad thing. Some people say it’s the root of all evil, but the lack of it is also the root of all evil. It works both sides. It’s better to have more. What I got from it is beyond what I could comprehend before. People are putting offers on the table I didn’t expect. I think, “wow! How did I get here??” I was poor, not really dirt poor considering life on a reservation, but I didn’t have a lot. Now I am not just getting by, I am doing better! I can do more than what I thought possible. I can do things now.  It’s been good.  I guess one of the things, the hurdle is to forget about the past and just go forward. History is there. I would rather see it in books rather than it be in my head. That’s the struggle for a lot of people. They keep dwelling and dwelling and dwelling – its like eating your own vomit. It’s bad for you.  I don’t know how many years people are thinking about the residential school system. I was there.  They took our family.  Buried his body.  Indian Affairs didn’t even want to help. They cut us off. It was pretty hurtful that they didn’t help. They kind of woke up. I decided to move forward. 

Q: If someone wanted to do something similar, what would you recommend?

They have to understand that the obstacles on a reserve are people, you can’t go over those people at this point in time.  In the foreseeable future, maybe a decade, that obstacle will be gone. But in the meantime, go forward with your dreams, forget about the past, and keep on chugging. 

Q: Any weblinks?

 www.samhunter.myknet.org