By Lisa Iesse Writer “We will become stronger and we will be reborn with a new strength of spirit,” says Gary Miller-Lahiaaks, artist and Mohawk Institute Survivor. Miller was born in Six Nations in 1950 to a Mohawk mother and Cayuga father. He had just turned 3 years old when he first entered the doors of the Mohawk Institute. There, he experienced physical, emotional, and spiritual violence and oppression until he left at the age of 14 years old. The Mohawk Institute was the first of many ‘schools’ in Canada’s residential school system, operating for over 140 years. The system was designed to stop Indigenous parents, grandparents and Elders from passing on their culture, language, practices and beliefs to their children. Children were stolen from families, punished for speaking their…
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