It’s a day the Onabigon family has spent decades waiting for: the repatriation of their uncle, Percy Onabigon, back to Long Lake #58 First Nation.
Percy was taken from the northern Ontario community as a young child and put into St. Joseph’s Indian Residential School in Thunder Bay. From there, he was sent to a number of hospitals and institutions, on account of being epileptic and partially paralyzed.
His family was never told where he was sent or what became of him after he was removed from St. Joseph’s by a federal Indian agent.
After years of research and advocacy, Percy’s niece, Claire Onabigon, found him: in a cemetery in Woodstock, Ont., more than 1,200 kilometres from home. He died at age 27 of tuberculosis at the Ontario Hospital.
On Thursday — the 59th anniversary of Percy’s death — seven family members and a pipe carrier travelled to the southern Ontario city to exhume his remains.
But it wasn’t easy; the family appealed to both the provincial and federal governments to cover the roughly $45,000 cost.
Because Percy died as an adult, not a child, the family was told the federal government would not provide coverage under the Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund.
After CBC News shared the Onabigons’ story in September, the Ontario government offered to foot the bill. The money comes from the Ministry of Indigenous Affairs and First Nations Economic Reconciliation’s Residential School Unit.
“This is not just about bringing Percy home — it is about repatriating an Ancestor, honouring the lives of all those affected by the Residential School system, and moving forward together with respect, dignity, and justice,” ministry spokesperson Meaghan Evans told CBC News in an email.
For the Onabigons, though, it wasn’t about the money; it was about the acknowledgement that Percy should never have been taken in the first place.
Bringing Percy home: The fight to reclaim a lost relative’s remains
“This has gone way beyond just our family and how we feel about it,” said Claire. “[It has] also opened up other people’s eyes and ears to what’s happened to the Indigenous people of Canada, especially through the residential school system.”
Before the exhumation began, the family held a ceremony to honour Percy, which they never got to do when he died. About two dozen people were there, including chiefs, mental health workers, members of the Ontario Provincial Police and others who helped make the repatriation happen.
Simultaneously, a sacred fire and ceremony were held in Long Lake #58.
The Onabigons also gifted a medallion to Claire Sault, chief of Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, for keeping Percy’s remains safe in her traditional territory for so long.
“Imagine how many more Percys there are,” Sault said. “[The family’s] 20-year journey is extraordinary. Their perseverance to get the help they needed and to, most importantly, keep his memory alive.”
Marcus Ryan, the warden of Oxford County, which includes Woodstock, says getting to know the Onabigons has been awe-inspiring.
“It’s a real truth that there’s a person in a grave here who was involuntarily taken from his community, from his nation, and sent to another part of the province without anybody’s apparent permission,” Ryan said.
“There is an actual real opportunity for meaningful truth and meaningful reconciliation, and we have to take every one of those opportunities.”
Truth and reconciliation are loaded words for Judy Desmoulin, chief of Long Lake #58 First Nation.
“I’m just not sure our country really knows what that truly means,” she said. “This situation today is proof of our truth; Percy has provided that window of letting our truth be known.”
What worries her is that First Nations children are still being taken from their families through the child welfare system, something she wants to see change.
“We’re going through a really complex process finding our kids, bringing them home, and I never want to bring them home like this,” she said as she pointed to Percy’s grave. “It’s definitely not over.”
Anna Betty Achneepineskum is a deputy grand chief for Nishnawbe Aski Nation, which represents 49 First Nations across Treaties 9 and 5. She echoes Desmoulin’s concerns.
“We need to have the proper resources and the capacity to ensure that our children don’t have to leave home, whether for school or through the child welfare system,” Achneepineskum said.
“We need to have the resources to be able to assist our families when they do search, and when they do want to bring their loved one home.”
Anishinabek Nation, which represents 39 First Nations in Ontario, played a key role in advocating for the province to help support the Onabigons. Grand Chief Linda Debassige says now it’s time for the federal government to step up, too.
“Canada, in our view, has an ethical, moral, and fiduciary obligation to help repatriate our ancestors who were taken to residential schools without the consent of their parents,” Debassige said.
On the campaign trail, Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, which includes support for Indigenous people to repatriate human remains.
But Debassige wants to see a firm commitment to implement the action items in Kimberly Murray’s final report, released last fall.
Murray served as Canada’s independent special interlocutor for missing children and unmarked graves and burial sites associated with Indian Residential Schools.
Her report outlines 42 obligations for governments, churches and other institutions to follow, in order to implement an Indigenous-led Reparations Framework for Truth, Accountability, Justice, and Reconciliation.
Murray helped Claire research what happened to Percy, having recently discovered that he was in fact eight, not six, when he was taken to residential school, which speaks to “why it’s so important for all the archives to be accessible to communities,” she said.
“My message to the new prime minister is to implement the obligations… to continue to support communities and families and survivors that are searching for the missing and disappeared children, and to properly fund these investigations that communities are doing right now.”
Percy’s remains are being sent to Ontario’s Forensic Pathology Service in Toronto, where an autopsy and DNA analysis will be conducted — though a forensic anthropologist who assisted with the exhumation says there are signs an autopsy has already been conducted.
The family says they were never told this, and have not been able to trace any documentation.
The family plans to rebury Percy in Long Lake #58 this summer, beside his relatives. In sharing his story, they say they hope others receive the same support to bring their loved ones home.
“With all the support we had, it was made possible. So if we can do it, other families can do it, too,” said Claire’s brother, John O’Nabigon.
“Seeing all the support from everybody else, that people saw our cause for once and they wanted to help and they recognized that it was important,” said Riley Labelle, Claire Onabigon’s 15-year-old granddaughter.
“Because it is important, because it’s our family — and just if it was anybody else’s family, you’d want them to be home.”
A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for former students and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.
Mental health counselling and crisis support is also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the Hope for Wellness hotline at 1-855-242-3310 or by online chat at www.hopeforwellness.ca.
