Star readers rally to bring Charlie Hunter home

Charlie Hunter, 13, drowned in 1974 while attending residential school in Ft. Albany. He was buried in Moosonee/ His family's trying to have his remains flown back to his home community Peawanuck on Hudson Bay. This photo is Charlie and his father a couple of years before his death.  SUPPLIED PHOTO

Eileen and Joe Wilson can’t sit back and let Charlie Hunter’s family suffer.

They haven’t ever spoken with the Hunters, who live in the tiny Cree community of Peawanuck (population 250), in the Weenusk First Nation on Hudson Bay.

But the Wilsons were both moved to tears when they recently read in the Star on March 5 how Charlie, 13, drowned in 1974 while skating on a lake at St. Anne’s Residential School in Fort Albany in northwestern Ontario.

Charlie was trying to save a partially sighted student who had fallen through the ice. That student lived, but Charlie drowned.

A week later, the young boy was buried under a white wooden cross in Moonsonee, 515 km from his community. His parents say they weren’t consulted about funeral arrangements. There are no roads between the two northern communities.

Charlie’s parents Mike, 75, and Pauline, 73, are both in failing health. For years, their family has unsuccessfully pressed the federal government to have Charlie’s body brought home so that they can visit his grave and talk with his spirit.

“I was in tears, just reading it,” said Eileen Wilson, 63.

“We thought how nice it would be for his parents if they had some place to visit, to talk to him,” she said. “Everybody deserves a wee bit of help every once in a while. It just got to us.”

So, without ever even speaking with Charlie’s parents, the Wilsons pledged $5,000 to ease their pain.

Because of a strong response from Star readers like the Wilsons, a trust fund has been established by the National Residential Schools Survivors Society to move Charlie Hunter’s body closer to his family.

The costs of Charlie’s reburial will not be cheap. It would cost $800 for a backhoe and labour to exhume the body, plus $1,200 for a casket. Funeral home costs would total an estimated $11,750, which includes fulfilling a requirement that two trained people accompany the body from Moosonee to his final resting place.

There are no roads into the Hunters’ tiny community, which is accessible only by canoe and bush plane.

The cost of an air charter is another $9,000, bringing the total amount to transport Charlie’s body to Peawanuck to an estimated $21,550.

After the Hunters wrote to Indian Affairs Minister John Duncan, he replied with a letter saying he feels badly for them but cannot help.

Readers reacted with indignation to the family’s treatment by the federal government.

“To not return Charlie to his family and his home, was and is just . . . plain cruel and spiteful,” wrote retirees Tim and Maggie Gordon of Port Hope.

Readers also offered financial and logistical support for the Hunter family.

Claire Franceschetti, 40, a GTA real estate agent, said she’d be happy to write a cheque but she’d also be willing to put her vast range of contacts to work, and hopefully cut some sort of a deal on airfares in transporting the body and bringing Charlie’s family to a funeral service.

“I have friends who are pilots,” Franceschetti said.

Retired Toronto Star columnist Michele Landsberg was touched by the image of Charlie’s final conversations with his younger sister Christine, who was then 7 years old.

Christine was playing hopscotch alone when Charlie approached her and warned her not to leave the school grounds. Then he chased after some boys who were hiding skates in their jackets and she returned to her game.

“I keep thinking of that kid, running off to snatch a little fun, stopping to keep his little sister safe,” Landsberg wrote.

Reader Sri Priya Sundararajan, 32, of Mississauga, was also greatly moved by Charlie’s actions moments later, when he tried to save another student from drowning.

“Charlie died while trying to save another child,” wrote Sundararajan, who’s doing post-doctoral research in engineering physics at McMaster University in Hamilton. “That’s a real mark of character in a person so young.

“When a child died in such a noble way, it’s a tragedy that Charlie’s parents aren’t able to get some peace, to get some closure. If it’s just money that’s in the way, then I wanted to do something about it.”

Charlie Hunter’s sister Joyce Hunter, 32, said the family has made repeated requests to Ottawa for the body’s repatriation, with no success.

She noted that Charlie was first sent to St. Anne’s Residential School in Fort Albany at the age of 5, after pressure from federal authorities.

“My parents were told they had a legal obligation to hand over their children so they could be ‘educated’ at residential school,” Joyce Hunter said.

She said the family still thinks the government should pick up the costs of Charlie’s funeral in his home community, but adds she and her family greatly appreciate the support of the general public.

Donations can be made in the name of National Residential Schools Survivors Society to: TD Canada Trust 004, Branch: 03552, Account: 5215281.

++++++++++

From Sault Ste Marie SOOTODAY.COM

Residential school death remains unresolved

THUNDER BAY, ON - The family of the late Charles “Charlie” Hunter, assisted by the National Residential Schools Survivors Society, is calling on Canadians to assist them in their quest to bring the remains of their son home to Weenusk First Nation.

Charlie, 13 at the time of his death, drowned while attending St. Anne’s Residential School in Fort Albany.

After being autopsied in Timmins, his body was shipped to Moosonee and buried there instead of being returned home to his family for burial.

“When they were taken, my parents were told they had a legal obligation to hand over their children so they could be ‘educated’ at residential school,” said Joyce Hunter, family spokesperson. “And when he died we were denied the opportunity as a family to bury Charlie at home on our own terms. Instead the government decided to bury him at Moosonee 515 kms south of our home community. Even though we have made repeated requests to Indian Affairs over the years for Charlie’s repatriation, our request has always been refused at each asking.”

National Residential Schools Survivors Society takes issue with the lack of compassion demonstrated by the federal government towards the Hunter family in its handling of this file, said Michael Cachagee, the organization’s executive director.

“We take issue with the fact that this child’s remains were treated without proper respect when he died, and we take issue with the subsequent treatment of the Hunter family by the government when they tried to have Charlie returned to them,” Cachagee said. “We feel it is important to bring this long and painful chapter for the Hunter family to a close and are now asking Canadians to step up to the plate and donate so this family can be reunited.”

A trust account has been set up by National Residential Schools Survivors Society.

Those wishing to wish to donate may do so at the following:

TD Canada Trust 004
Branch: 03552
Account: 5215281

National Residential Schools Survivors Society is the national, non-political voice of survivors and their families of Canada’s residential schools system.

Their mission is to represent the concerns and interests of survivors and their families as well as to support, promote and enhance healing and reconciliation for survivors and promote awareness of the residential school systems within First Nation communities and mainstream Canada.

PHOTO CAPTION: Charlie Hunter, shown with his father Mike, drowned in 1974 while attending residential school in FortAlbany. He was buried in Moosoneee without family approval. Charlie's family is trying to have his remains flown back to his home community, Peawanuck on Hudson Bay.