Charlie Hunter's family bringing him home 37 years after his death at residential school
Star gets action: Charlie Hunter headed home
Peter Edwards, Staff Reporter - Mar 24 2011
Charlie Hunter, 13, drowned in 1974 while attending residential school in Ft. Albany and he was buried in Moosonee, without family approval. Star readers have donated enough money to have his remains moved home.
Charlie Hunter is finally going home.
Thanks to the generosity of Toronto Star readers, enough money has been deposited in a trust fund to have the young boy’s remains sent home to his tiny Cree community near Hudson Bay.
Back in 1974, Charlie died while attending St. Anne’s Residential School in Fort Albany, another remote community. He was 13.
He was skating on a lake with fellow students when a partially sighted boy fell through the ice. Charlie tried to pull him from the water and fell in himself.
The partially sighted boy was rescued, but Charlie drowned.
Charlie was buried under a wooden cross in Moosonee, 515 kilometres from his parents’ home in Peawanuck, in the Weenusk First Nation. They say they weren’t consulted about the burial site. No roads connect the two communities; visiting their son’s grave has been difficult, and at times impossible.
Charlie’s parents Mike, 75, and Pauline, 73, are both in ailing health and have been increasingly anxious to have the body returned.
A story about the plight of Charlie’s family in the Star earlier this month sparked a quick and generous response.
By Wednesday afternoon, a trust fund established to accept donations contained $9,898 — more than enough to fly his remains to his parents’ community, which is only accessible by canoe or bush plane.
“It’s just unbelievable,” Charlie Hunter’s sister, Joyce, said in a telephone interview from Thunder Bay. “To us, this is really profound.
“I’m just awestruck by their compassion and generosity.”
Since Charlie’s burial in October 1974, the Hunters have repeatedly appealed to Ottawa asking for his remains to be returned.
Indian Affairs Minister John Duncan wrote back to the family last summer, saying he felt badly for them but could not help.
“After so many years of hearing ‘no,’ we’re hearing, ‘We can help you,’” Joyce Hunter, 32, said on Wednesday.
One reader dropped off an envelope at the Star newsroom. It contained $50 and $20 bills totalling $1,500 and an anonymous handwritten note.
“It is very sad to read that Mike and Pauline Hunter of Peawanuck are unable to bring their child’s body home from Moosonee,” the reader wrote.
“Enclosed is an anonymous donation to help in their efforts. Please see that they get the funds.”
Another concerned reader, Mike Wilson of Timmins, donated his expertise to dramatically cut the costs of the reburial.
Wilson, who operates the Miron-Wilson Funeral Home, arranged for the body to be relocated for between $8,000 to $8,500 — far less than the family’s original estimate of $21,550 to exhume and move the body by bush plane.
He told the family that they didn’t need to store the remains overnight en route and charter an aircraft, as they had originally been told.
“I care deeply for the people up the (Hudson Bay) coast,” Wilson said. “I’m glad to help them.”
Shortly after the publication of the Star’s story, the National Residential Schools Survivors Society set up a Facebook page called “Bring Charlie Hunter Home!” to raise funds. It quickly attracted more than 500 followers.
Among the postings was one from a man who was with Charlie the afternoon he drowned.
“I remember the incident when it happened as I also attended the residential school myself,” wrote Robert Gillies. “I also remember that he gave his life to save another.”
Hunter’s brother Brian, 41, wrote, in English and in Cree on the Facebook page: “For the first time in my life I feel like I’m not struggling alone in bringing my brother back home to my reserve. Thanks for standing behind our family ... gii chili meegwetch ndoodemuk (a huge thank you to my friends).”
The family plans the reburial for July 6, when the ground near Hudson Bay has thawed.
Joyce Hunter said the mood will be far different than in October 1974, when Charlie was buried in Moosonee.
“It was all just very ugly and wrong,” she said. “Nobody helped them through their ordeal and they left without their son.”
Now, her family is dazzled by the warmth of strangers.
“This is all happening really quickly with my parents. They’re very overwhelmed.”