Kuper Island: Return to the Healing Circle

Kuper Island: Return to the Healing Circle

This film was made in 1997, one year after the last residential school in Canada was closed.  Kuper Island Residential School was opened in 1890 and closed in 1978.  During that time, hundreds of Aboriginal children suffered extreme abuse at the hands of the Catholic brothers running the school.  Parts of this film may be hard to watch and listen to, but remember as you watch it, that the story is one of healing.

Think about these questions as you watch the film.

Where is Kuper Island? 

Kuper Island is opposite Chemainus next to Thetis Island

Why did they refer to it as “Alcatraz”? 

Kuper Island is a remote island with fast moving currents in Stuart Channel.  There was no easy escape from the island.

Why would the Catholic church have built the school there in the first place?

They wanted to ensure that the children did not get away and return to their families.

What types of things did the Europeans ban and to what end?

They banned Indigenous language and cultural and spiritual practices in order to force assimilation of the children into European culture and religion.

Why did parents send their children there?

They were threatened with arrest and jail time if they did not relinquish their children to the Indian Agent.

How did/do people try to heal from the residential school experience?

• to come face-to-face with their experiences and admit them - to tell the truth about what happened to them
• join in a healing/talking circle and to keep talking about the experience over and over until they are done with the pain
• disclose what happened to them to authorities (RCMP, Truth and Reconciliation Commission)
• show their feelings through artwork, i.e. carving
• get sober
• take part in sweatlodges

What type of emotions did residential school leave in the victims/survivors?

• anger
• hatred
• sorrow
• guilt
• shame

How did these people lose their childhoods?

• they had to take care of each other as the adults were abusing them instead of caring for them
• they were not allowed to show emotion
• they were abused physically, emotionally, sexually and culturally
• isolation
• the boys playing outside and waiting until someone's number was called before they could actually relax

What social and emotional problems came later to the victims/survivors of residential schools?

• drug and alcohol addiction
• inability to show or share feelings
• inability to trust
• family violence
• extreme emotional pain
• low or non-existent self-esteem
• loss of pride in self
• multi-generational dysfunction
• post-traumatic stress disorder

How were the children isolated?

They were not allowed to speak to family members - even distant family members.  They suffered from such shame over the sexual abuse that they couldn't talk to anyone about it.

How does the film show hope in the end?

• Delmar Johnny's wedding
• the young men choosing to heal in their teens and early twenties
• choosing to go back to school and finish college
• father teaching son how to fish
• children playing outside with smiles on their faces

Important People to know in BC History

Captain James Cook

Captain James Cook was a British explorer.  On his third and final voyage, he went northeast to explore the west coast of North America. He unknowingly sailed past the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and soon after entered Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island. He anchored near the First Nations village of Yuquot. Cook's two ships spent about a month in Nootka Sound, from 29 March to 26 April 1778.  Relations between Cook's crew and the people of Yuquot were cordial if sometimes strained.

Chief Maquinna

Chief Maquinna was the chief of the Nuu-chah-nulth people of Nootka Sound when Captain Cook arrived on Vancouver Island.  His summer coastal village, Yuquot, became the first important anchorage for Europeans trying to gain power and make money when the maritime fur trade began. 

Sir Alexander Mackenzie

Sir Alexander Mackenzie was a Scottish explorer. He was the first person to cross the continent north of Mexico.  He opened the Canadian Northwest and much of the geography of western North America. Mackenzie’s journey linked the Northwest with Canada, rather than letting it come under the sway of the United States.  The Mackenzie river is named after him.

Simon Fraser

Simon Fraser was an American explorer.  Simon Fraser was given the task of exploring a river believed to be the Columbia to its ocean outlet.  He successfully navigated the river but it turned out not to be the Columbia, but rather an unknown river which was later name the Fraser River. Their harrowing journey, 520 miles in length and 36 days long, showed both the ruggedness of BC and the courage of the explorers. Their expedition ended at the mouth of the Fraser River (near Delta, Richmond, and South Vancouver).

Sir James Douglas

Sir James Douglas was a Hudson's Bay Company fur-trader and a British colonial governor on Vancouver Island. From 1851 to 1864, he was Governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island. In 1858 he also became the first Governor of the Colony of British Columbia.  He remained governor of both Vancouver Island and British Columbia until his retirement in 1864. He is often called "The Father of British Columbia".   James Douglas was born in Guyana to a Scottish planter, and Martha Ann Tefler, a Creole. Telfer was free coloured, which in her time and place meant a free person of mixed European and African ancestry. On April 27, 1828, Douglas married the daughter of New Caledonia's Chief Factor William Connolly, Amelia Connolly. Amelia's mother had been Cree. 

While he was Governor, Douglas there was a lot of pressure from the United States of America to take over BC. Douglas created Vancouver Island's first militia (army) and he also used the Royal Navy for protection.

Douglas made an elected Legislative Assembly to run the government. 

Douglas' largest problem in the mid- and late-1850s concerned relations with the majority First Nations population which numbered at around 30,000 people. 

• Songhees, 
• Cowichan, 
• Nanaimo, 
• Nuu-chah-nulth,
• Haida from Haida Gwaii,
• Euclataws Kwakiutl of northern Georgia Strait,
• Sechelt, Sḵwxwú7mesh, and Sto:lo peoples of the Lower Mainland. 

There were less than 1000 Europeans in the colony.  

Douglas' relations towards First Nations peoples were mixed:

•  Douglas' wife was Cree, 
• he had  many close business and personal relationships with indigenous peoples as a fur trader, 
• he worked to finish treaties (legal agreements) with First Nations on southern Vancouver Island. 
• Douglas had given arms to the Washington Territory's army to help the American government fight its war with Native American tribes, 
• the treaties he finished were criticized because they didn't give enough compensation for land taken from the First Nations (in most cases, a few blankets or a few shillings)

Dr. John Sebastian Helmcken

John Sebastian Helmcken was a British Columbia doctor who helped bring BC into Canada. He joined the Hudson's Bay Company in 1849 as a doctor on to be stationed on Vancouver Island. He settled there and married James Douglas' daughter Cecilia. 

This is Helmcken House, built by Dr. Helmcken in 1852.  This house still stands beside the Royal BC Museum.

In 1856, he was elected to the first Legislative Assembly of Vancouver Island.  He was the speaker of the Legislative Assembly until BC joined Confederation in 1871. Helmcken had been sent to Ottawa to negotiate terms of confederation with the Canadian government. The terms they negotiated were very favourable to BC; In particular, BC was promised a railway connection with the rest of Canada within ten years and the federal government agreed to assume the colony's sizable debt.  British Columbia became a Canadian province on July 20, 1871. After Confederation, Helmcken retired from politics.

Amor De Cosmos

Amor De Cosmos was a Canadian journalist, publisher and politician. He was the second Premier of British Columbia. He believed that BC and Vancouver Island needed to be self-supporting, have a distinct identity, and be connected politically and economically. For him, the two most important things were the union of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, and British Columbia joining Confederation. De Cosmos left journalism and entered politics and became a member of the Legislative Assembly of Vancouver Island and later BC.  He pushed hard to get BC in Canada.  Because of this he is known as one of British Columbia's Fathers of Confederation.

Matthew Baillie Begbie

Matthew Baillie Begbie was the first judge in British Columbia and later became known as "The Hanging Judge". He quickly earned a reputation as a strong, but fair, judge and kept law and order among the white population. He helped Governor James Douglas to keep the colony British and to become part of Canada.

Begbie traveled throughout British Columbia, on foot and on horseback to hold court and keep justice He spoke several languages and is said to have been able to conduct trials in several aboriginal languages without the use of an interpreter.

Upon BC entering Confederation in 1871, Begbie became its first chief justice. He stood up for the rights of Chinese and Native people; he had a tendency to take the side of the "little man." 

Colonies of British Columbia and Vancouver Island

Colony of Vancouver Island 

Flag for the Colony of Vancouver Island.

• in 1849 Vancouver Island became a crown colony . 
• at first, James Douglas was in charge of encouraging British settlement. 
• There was no civil service, no police, no militia, and virtually every British colonist was an employee of the HBC. 
• In 1851 the colonial office appointed Douglas as governor. 
• Douglas raised a domestic militia and worked hard at encouraging settlement.
• Mid-1850s, the colony's non-aboriginal population was approaching 500
• Sawmill and coal mining operations had been established at Fort Nanaimo and Fort Rupert (near present day Port Hardy). 
• Douglas helped established a naval base at present-day Esquimalt to stop Russians and Americans from moving into Vancouver Island and BC
• Officials in London kept land prices high so that only the wealthier British would move to Vancouver Island & BC and they were were given incentives to bring out labourers with them to work the landholdings. 
• Emigration was slow because of cost
• Most workers who didn't own land left VI to get free land in the US, or work in the California goldrush. 
• VI had a large First Nations population > 30,000. 
• Douglas negotiated fourteen separate treaties, the Douglas Treaties, with the various nations. 
• The First Nations had to give up claim to all land within a designated area, except for villages and cultivated areas, in perpetuity (forever). 
• They were also given permission to hunt and fish over unoccupied territories. 
• For this, the First Nations were given a one-time cash payment of a few shillings each.
• By 1857, there were rumours of gold in the Cariboo. 
• In 1858, 10,000-20,000 men moved into the interior of BC, and Victoria was transformed into a tent-city of prospectors, merchants, land-agents, and speculators.
• In 1858 - to control the HBC and the influx of people, the British government made BC a colony and offered the governorship of BC to James Douglas.

To see a birds-eye-view of what Victoria looked like in the early days, click here.

Colony of British Columbia

The Seymour Artillery Regiment in New Westminster, 1866

• The capital of British Columbia was New Westminster but Douglas governed from Victoria, the capital of Vancouver Island.
• Because of the Cariboo Gold Rush, there was a huge influx of people into the  
• To control all the new people in BC & on VI, magistrates and constables were hired including "the Hanging Judge" - Matthew Baillie Begbie. 
• Roads were constructed into the areas of greatest mining exploration around Lillooet and Lytton.
• A more stable population of British colonists settled in the region, establishing businesses, opening sawmills, and engaging in fishing and agriculture.