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Burning up the past

Aug 10, 2012 | 6:57 AM

“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust” is how the saying goes, and that’s exactly what happened on Thursday afternoon on the Lac La Ronge First Nation.

A two-day gathering ended with the burning of a replica boat, the same kind that once ferried First Nations children to a residential school in La Ronge. It was all part of an elaborate ceremony to put the past to rest and concentrate on positive change for the future.

“It’s a sacred fire”, explained Tom Roberts, one of the event organizers and a residential school survivor.

“And when that sacred fire burns, all those memories, all that negativity will burn with it. And when it’s all said and done only the positive stuff will come out.”

Over 100 people of all ages — most of them being of First Nations decent — began to crowd around the lacrosse box that served as the site for the ceremony. As the finishing touches were made, children passed around markers so they could all write their name on the boat. Pieces of bark, used to ensure the boat would burn quickly, were also passed around to anyone that wanted to put their own touch on the ceremony.

This was an event that Roberts would take special pride in, considering it was his idea.

“Getting the boat here was an idea that I had a while back,” he said.

“My mom used to talk about a boat that used to haul kids from the north end of La Ronge lake to La Ronge to go to school in the fall … so I thought, ‘let’s see if we can make a replica’”.

He asked around, and was eventually put in touch with a local ship builder, Pinehouse resident Eric Natomagan.

Natomagan says it only took him a few days to build the boat, but that it happened over the course of one month. Any free time, an hour here or an hour there, including evenings and weekends was spent on the boat.

Once the fire was lit by former residential student Elizabeth Charles, flames danced into the air and drums began to pound. The crowd stood silent with the only sound being that of crackling flames and camera flashes.

As a fitting end, the storm clouds that had threatened rain throughout the afternoon opened up just as the flames had begun to die down. The remaining ashes were then to be collected and saved, so this day could be remembered.

“When the boat starts lighting up, and the flames go up into the sky, part of that horrible past will be gone with it. And then we will take all of the ashes and put them away some place, they won’t be thrown into the dump,” said Roberts.

The residential school in La Ronge burned down in 1946. Students from northern communities attending that school were then sent to Prince Albert.

rhaagen@panow.com

Twitter: @ragnarhaagen