Former Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford, Ont., nearly ready to open as public museum

The former Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford, Ont., will open to the public as a museum for the first time this fall — marking a major milestone in the site's history, as well as for survivors and the Woodland Cultural Centre that's worked for years to transform it. 

It will open Sept. 30, on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, says Heather George, the Woodland Cultural Centre's executive director. 

"What better time to reopen Mohawk Institute as this evidence of the lives, the stories of children and all of the work that our communities have done to ensure the goal of residential schools are not what our communities are – we are about language and cultural reclamation," George said.

The Woodland Cultural Centre also has a full slate of activities planned for National Indigenous Peoples Day this Saturday — including the opening of Canada's longest-running, contemporary, Indigenous juried art show. Pieces will be on display in the centre's gallery next to the Mohawk Institute building. 

"It's really important for Canadians to come and bear witness both to the beautiful and powerful things we do at Woodland, but also the really hard stories we are telling, too," said George.  

The Mohawk Institute was the longest-running residential school in Canada, opening in 1828 as a day school for boys from the reserve, before accepting boarders and girls in 1834, according to the Survivors' Secretariat. It closed in 1970 after about 15,000 children from over 60 communities across Canada had been forced to attend the school. 

At least 105 died while enrolled there, the secretariat estimates. Students died of illness or injury, or ran away and died elsewhere. 

The residential school system forced Indigenous children to leave their families and cut ties to their culture, language and traditions. Children suffered horrific abuse at residential schools, including the Mohawk Institute. 

The Woodland Cultural Centre was established two years after the Mohawk Institute closed. Its work includes teaching about the history of the residential school, as well as collecting artifacts, survivor stories and research. 

The building required extensive repairs, which the centre paid for through government funding and private donations, through the centre's Save the Evidence fundraising campaign. That work has now been done and starting in the fall, the building will be open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday to Sunday. 

Woodland is also continuing to work on a new cultural centre building on site, which will serve as a performance, arts and community space. It's raised $3.5 million for capital costs, a campaign bolstered by the family of the late Six Nations musician Robbie Robertson, who requested people support the centre's work in his name. 

George said the team will be conducting community consultation on what should be included in the space, like for example a community kitchen, but the project is still years away from breaking ground. 

It all fits into Woodland's focus on preserving and strengthening Indigenous language, culture and art, or, as George puts it, "celebrating everything we still have that our family members worked so hard to ensure all that knowledge wasn't taken away." 

For National Indigenous Peoples Day this Saturday, the centre has plans to do just that on its grounds and in its galleries next to the residential school building, including the art show, now its 50th year. An opening reception will be held Friday evening.