Cathy Dobson/The Independent

Enos (Bud) Whiteye was remembered Saturday for his extraordinary resilience and remarkable achievements.

A Celebration of life was held at the Walpole Island community centre for Whiteye who died Feb. 1 at the age of 79.  More than 60 friends and family remembered him as a man who overcame extreme abuse and heartache to become an accomplished journalist and advocate for residential school survivors like himself.

This was no ordinary gathering in honour of the elder who was father to nine children, grandfather to 27 and great-grandfather to five. 

It featured the showing of an award-winning film about the experience of Whiteye and six other survivors of the Mohawk Institute Indian Residential School in Brantford.  Its presentation at his Celebration of Life came at Whiteye’s instructions, according to his eldest daughter Kristin Noble.

Whiteye was determined that part of his legacy was to ensure the horror of those schools will never be repeated, Noble said.

He wanted people to know and understand the harm that the residential school system caused, she said. “He was a quiet, soft-spoken man and he didn’t want his children to hurt.”  So, for years, he didn’t talk about his heartbreaking experience.

But, much later, when he finally won his battle with depression and alcohol abuse, he wrote about it extensively, spoke about it publicly and participated with other residential school survivors in a feature length documentary called “The Nature of Healing: Surviving the Mohawk Institute,” produced by former Sarnian Faith Howe.

The film was shown at the Imperial Theatre last fall, but Whiteye was too ill to attend.  However, he did say at the time that he was proud of the film, and proud of a short book he wrote in 2004 called “A Dark Legacy: A Primer on Indian Residential Schools in Canada.”

Copies of his book were passed out at his Celebration of Life.

“Once the book was published, I think my dad had more of a voice,” said Noble.  “At the time, he was one of the first to bring the fact that there were residential schools to light.

“My father was always so well-spoken.  He was intelligent, important and wanted to share his life because he didn’t want it to happen again to us or to anybody,” she said.

When Whiteye left the Mohawk Institute after six years, he joined the U.S. Marine Corp and served in Vietnam.

“Dad said fighting in the war was easier than being in the residential school,” said Noble.

The Mohawk Institute was the longest-operating residential school in Canada. It was attended by at least 15,000 Indigenous children from 1831 to 1970 in an attempt by the Canadian government to wipe out the Indigenous culture.

Whiteye spoke and wrote about his childhood trauma – the malnutrition, the freezing cold, and the repeated sexual assaults he suffered at the hands of a school employee.  When the film was released to critical acclaim, Whiteye said that it was a cathartic experience and that he wanted as many as possible to see it.

Filmmakers Faith and Michael Howe and three other survivors attended Whiteye’s Celebration of Life on Saturday.

“Bud was a very good friend and when he spoke, we learned what happened on the boys’ side,” said survivor Roberta Hill following the film presentation.  “None of us wants this to ever happen again and that’s why we must talk about it.”

“Bud was a very humble person,” said Faith Howe.  “He never told me he was an award-winning journalist.”  In fact, Whiteye left the U.S. Marine Corps to attend Western University where he earned a journalism degree.  He went on to work for the CBC, then wrote a syndicated column that appeared in The Sarnia Observer and other newspapers across the country.  For his work, he received an Ontario Newspaper Award (ONA) in 2005 and was named ONA’s Journalist of the Year in 2010.

“Bud called himself a newsman,” said his brother-in-law Russell Nahdee.  “He was interested in the human story…He’d say it’s not just about writing a story, it’s about giving us as much as he could about his concern for people and his real sense of justice.

“I think real justice was what he pursued as a journalist and a writer,” added Nahdee.

The gathering at Walpole Island (Bkejwanong) – where Whiteye was raised until he and four of his siblings were lured away to the Mohawk Institute – was preceded by an honour guard salute in Algonac City, Michigan by the U.S. Marine Corp.   

In his honour, Whiteye’s family is requesting donations to The Mohawk Village Memorial Park, a project that he supported and hoped would educate future generations.