“A government making a little bit of noise”: Residential school survivor decries B.C. mental health announcement

Sep 30, 2021 | 8:00 AM

MERRITT, B.C. — On Monday, the BC Government announced $1.5 million to address the urgent need for culturally safe and trauma-informed mental health and wellness supports for residential school survivors and Indigenous peoples as a result of the ongoing findings at former Indian Residential Schools.

Arnie Narcisse is an 11-year survivor of the residential school system and spoke to Q101 News to share his disappointment in the announcement.

“Chump change as far as I’m concerned,” stated Narcisse. “Two-hundred and three Bands in this province, I believe the last census around 275,000 Indians, I did a little bit of math on that, works out to about five bucks per person, mind you, not all the 270 went to the Indian Schools. Even if we say 100,000, that works out to 15 bucks per.”

“Basically I just think it’s a government making a little bit noise regarding Truth and Reconciliation week here. Let’s show that we’re trying to do something, throw out $1.5 million, sounds like a lot at first blush, but if you do the math it starts to come down dramatically,” added Narcisse.

The funding is part of the $12 million promised by the Province through their BC Residential School Response Fund.

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“Even that $12 million is chump change in itself. As far as I’m concerned they should be spending as much fixing the problem as they did getting the Indian out of us in the first place,” said Narcisse. “They built all these bloody Indian Schools all across the country, they’re all made out of brick, must have costed something. They had to pay all these people to run them. They had to buy food, shitty as it was. All of that costed money, a hell of a lot of money, and what I’m saying is that better be prepared to spend a hell of a lot of money fixing the problem as well.”

The funding announcement came just days before Thursday’s inaugural Truth and Reconciliation day across Canada.

“It’s a good start, it’s one day of recognition of what happened over 150 years, to over 150,000 people. It’s a good start. As they say, the proof is in the pudding, what’s going to happen in the long run,” questioned Narcisse.

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For more information:

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

Support Resources:

KUU-US Crisis Line: 1-800-588-8717
Tsow-Tun-Le Lum: 1-866-403-3123
Indian Residential School Survivors Society Toll-Free Line: 1-800-721-0066
24hr National Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419

by Michael Reeve / Q-101 Merritt

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“A government making a little bit of noise”: Residential school survivor decries B.C. mental health announcement

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