In the CBC podcast on Kuper Island Residential School, Duncan McCue made an important point about residential schools: “the death of a child in a residential school isn’t a thing of the past. It travels like ripples over water, touching the generations.”

Richard Thomas, an Indigenous student at Kuper Island Residential School in British Columbia,  died in 1966 but it is not a thing of the past. That death continues to be present. That is how inter-generational trauma works. For example, Belvie’s son John Thomas, was affected by residential schools even though he never attended one.  His mother’s experience affected his mother and he paid the price for that. Growing up with his mother was extremely difficult. She was an active alcoholic and as a result he became an alcoholic as well.

The pain Belvie experienced at the residential school affected the rest of her life and the lives of those around her. That pain included the pain of experiencing her brother’s death. That amplified the abuse she experienced directly.

John Belvie explained it this way:

 “Here is something that is extremely difficult for me. My mom gets insanely abused by these nuns and priests…that is somebody that is messing with you, and the problem for the next generation is that we get messed up by the people that are supposed to be nurturing us. Our own parents are the one’s that are mangling us.”

That is how inter-generational trauma works. And it is ugly.

After Richard died the students were forced to look at the body of Richard hanging in the gymnasium. Can you imagine that? That disturbed all the other students deeply. John Thomas said such a sight was “fuel for alcoholism.” But John wanted to learn the truth about his uncle Richard Thomas. He concluded that Richard had been sodomized by a Catholic priest at the school and then killed by that priest. How much more horrific can things get?

John wanted to see justice for his uncle. Specifically, he wanted to know that people cared enough about justice for his uncle that the authorities would actually pursue justice for him by locking up the perpetrator.

After Richard passed away, Belvie’s entire family eventually turned to alcohol to mask the pain. All of them were young when it happened and all of them in turn were also abused at the school. Each one of them was abused! It seemed like her entire family was trying to kill themselves through alcohol or in other ways. 2 out of 17 “succeeded” in doing exactly that.   Belvie was somehow able to break through the trauma. Belvie was 73 years old at the time she was interviewed for the podcast. She just wanted to live in peace and believed that finding out what happened to Richard, she believed, would bring her peace. She believed strongly that he did not commit suicide.