Journalist Tanya Talaga comes to the Playhouse in Hamilton to discuss colonization and family stories

Tanya Talaga, a journalist and a member of the Fort William First Nation, started the search for her great-great-grandmother, Annie Carpenter, with a brown file folder filled with old documents passed down from her uncle.

Talaga’s search quickly expanded to also tell the stories of what has happened to Indigenous families “due to Indian residential schools, Indian hospitals and [tuberculosis] sanatoriums and asylums.”

These stories are the focus in both her latest book and the four-part CBC docuseries The Knowing.

“An Elder that I know, Sam Achneepineskum, always tells me that we have to introduce ourselves and tell our own stories so people know who’s talking so, I had to do it this way because we all share parts of the same story,” Talaga told CBC Hamilton

Talaga is set to speak with Dr. Savage Bear, director of the McMaster Indigenous Research Institute, at the Playhouse Cinema in Hamilton on Thursday.

“It’s going to be a great conversation between two Indigenous women talking about colonization,” said Talaga.

“We’re going to be talking about family stories and how we got here from there.”

Looking for Indigenous records like ‘looking for a needle in a haystack’

Talaga said every First Nations person in Canada has heard of a family member who went missing in residential schools, or was sent to a hospital, sanatorium or asylum and didn’t come back.

“The Knowing is my odyssey trying to grapple with these truths in my own family, and that culminates with the story of one woman, Annie Carpenter, and what happened to her, what happened to her children and her children all the way down to me,” she said.

Talaga, who is based in Toronto, was eventually able to find Carpenter’s grave near a place she always drove by on her way to Ikea, to Sherway Gardens or the airport.

“We found Annie just off the Gardiner Expressway on the way to Hamilton,” Talaga said.

“She’s in an unmarked grave, along with 1,511 people… She’s been there since 1937, kind of hiding in plain sight.”

Carpenter was sent to an Ontario mental institution more than 2,000 kilometres from her home — an area by the Albany River and James Bay basin. Her story is one of many.

“There are no papers, no documents to explain why,” Talaga said. “All we know is that she never got out of there… Was her family ever told that she was dead? Were we given the option of having her come back home? I don’t think so.”

Talaga’s work also aims to shine a light on the lack of records and the institutional failures that contributed to the loss of so many Indigenous lives.

“A country that was intent on assimilating and destroying First Nations people weren’t careful in our records,” she said. “Sometimes it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

“It’s not just the Catholic Church. The Anglican Church has records, the Protestant churches, the universities, hospitals, municipalities, there’s records everywhere, [but] finding them is hard.”

Talaga is a ‘powerful voice for contemporary literature’ says McMaster director

Bear, who is a member of the Montreal Lake Cree Nation in northern Saskatchewan, emphasized the importance of having Indigenous journalists like Talaga tell the stories of Indigenous communities in Canada.

“I think that’s a no-brainer,” she told CBC Hamilton.

“We’ve had histories of our voices being unheard … Now that we have an incredible force of Indigenous authors, storytellers, filmmakers out there, it’s up to them to tell those stories.”

Bear said The Knowing is a “gentle but straightforward exploration of Indigenous resilience and wisdom.”

“Our communities are important to us. Our ancestors are important to us and knowing where we come from is critical,” she said.

Bear said Talaga is a “powerful voice for contemporary literature” and highlighted her connection to Indigenous communities and how that “allows others to open up to her.”

“All these poignant stories, these tragedies that happen and continue to happen within Indigenous communities, she doesn’t just focus on that. [The book and documentary] celebrate the strength of communities and the interconnectedness,” she said.

For Bear, it’s important that those reading or watching The Knowing and have a hard time getting through the hard details take their time with the content.

“It’s an important story to understand,” she said.

“So, read it, feel it, get through it, and come and see this incredible, powerful storyteller on Thursday.”

Encouraging other Indigenous people to tell their stories

Talaga said it’s important for other Indigenous people to realize they have similar stories.

“If every single one of our families were able to do what I’ve done with Annie… we’ll realize how important it is to set the record straight in Canada,” she said.

Her book was released Aug. 27, and her tour has already taken her to Toronto and Thunder Bay.

At the Hamilton event, she said she will continue to share her story and encourage others to confront Canada’s history.

“The history of this country, [is] not something that is abstract,” she said.

“Those stories need to be told. Those truths need to be heard because we cannot go forward in reconciliation in Canada unless we face what has happened in this country and accept it.”