Mother of Chanie Wenjack dies at 89 in Geraldton
The mother of Chanie Wenjack, the 12-year-old boy who died while trying to escape an Ontario residential school in 1966, has died.
Agnes Wenjack, 89, died on Friday at the Geraldton District Hospital in northern Ontario, the Nishnawbe Aski Nation says.
The Wenjack Theatre at Trent University in Peterborough is named in Chanie’s memory. In January, Trent also renamed its Indigenous studies school as the Chanie Wenjack School of Indigenous Studies.
When construction began on Trent’s Otonabee College in 1973, student leaders, from what’s now the Indigenous studies department, lobbied to have the college named after Wenjack. While that idea was rejected, the college’s hall was eventually named in honour of the boy.
Agnes Wenjack was the matriarch of the family, someone who loved nature and always helped others.
Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler expressed condolences to the Wenjack family and the Marten Falls First Nation, as did the family of singer Gord Downie, who told the story of Chanie Wenjack in his multimedia project
The project won two Juno Awards, for adult alternative album and recording package of the year.
Downie wrote the songs which were released alongside a graphic novel and a CBC-TV special.
“On behalf of my brothers Gord and Pat, and the entire Downie family, I send our condolences and love to the Wenjack family on the recent passing of Agnes Wenjack,” Mike Downie, the project’s co-creator, said in a statement. “May her strength, love and devotion help guide and comfort you on your life’s long journey.”
Fiddler said that like many who lost children to residential schools, Wenjack waited a lifetime for someone to explain why her son’s life was cut short.
“She never received an answer, but we pray that she found some comfort having lived to see Chanie’s story immortalized as a catalyst for reconciliation, and a lasting tribute to all residential school students who never made it home,” he said.
A funeral service was held Wednesday morning in Geraldton, Ont.