A Commemorative Monument & Gathering Place
Assiniboia Residential School was part of a system designed to destroy Indigenous identities, control Indigenous lives and eliminate Indigenous nations. More than 1000 students from 86 communities attended Assiniboia Residential School in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Assiniboia Residential School opened on Academy Road in Winnipeg’s River Heights neighbourhood on September 2, 1958 under the auspices of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
Prior to its opening, Indigenous students were often sent out of province because of the lack of facilities for secondary students in Manitoba. It was one of only a few urban residential schools in Canada and the first residential high school. The Oblates operated the school until 1969, when the federal government took over until its closing on June 30, 1973.
In June 2017, former Assiniboia Residential School students held a reunion in Winnipeg and visited the one remaining original building on what had been the school’s grounds. After sharing their truths, a group of Survivors agreed to form a non-profit organization. Inspired by the vision of former student Theodore (Ted) Fontaine, the group developed plans to create a permanent monument to commemorate the resilience and legacy of the students. Assiniboia Residential School Commemorative Monument & Gathering Place is located at 621 Academy Road in Winnipeg, Manitoba and the official opening ceremony took place on September 30th, 2022.
A Commemorative Monument &
Gathering Place
Assiniboia Residential School was part of a system designed to destroy Indigenous identities, control Indigenous lives and eliminate Indigenous nations. More than 750 students from 86 communities attended Assiniboia Residential School in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Assiniboia Residential School opened on Academy Road in Winnipeg’s River Heights neighbourhood on September 2, 1958 under the auspices of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
Prior to its opening, Indigenous students were often sent out of province because of the lack of facilities for secondary students in Manitoba. It was one of only a few urban residential schools in Canada and the first residential high school. The Oblates operated the school until 1969, when the federal government took over until its closing on June 30, 1973.
In June 2017, former Assiniboia Residential School students held a reunion in Winnipeg and visited the one remaining original building on what had been the school’s grounds. After sharing their truths, a group of Survivors agreed to form a non-profit organization. Inspired by the vision of former student Theodore (Ted) Fontaine, the group developed plans to create a permanent monument to commemorate the resilience and legacy of the students. Assiniboia Residential School Commemorative Monument & Gathering Place is located at 621 Academy Road in Winnipeg, Manitoba and the official opening ceremony took place on September 30th, 2022.
BOOK
Did You See Us?
Reunion, Remembrance, and Reclamation at an Urban Indian Residential School – Survivors of the Assiniboia Indian Residential School
Stitching together memories of former students with a socio-historical reconstruction of the school and its position in both Winnipeg and the larger residential school system, Did You See Us? offers a glimpse of Assiniboia that is not available in the archival records. It illustrates that residential schools were spaces where forced assimilation and Indigenous resilience co-existed.
Published by the University of Manitoba Press in 2021
ISBN 978-0-88755-907-5
Winner (2022)
Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher, Manitoba Book AwardsNominee (2022)
Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award, Manitoba Book Awards
Nominee (2021)
Margaret McWilliams Book Award for Local History, Manitoba Historical Society
About Us
Assiniboia Residential School Legacy Group is comprised of Survivors, intergenerational Survivors, and non-Indigenous community members. The mandate of this group is to honour the legacy of Assiniboia Residential School through commemorative and educational activities; promote positive and reconciliatory relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people; foster awareness, understanding and healing; and feature culture and language as interpreted and presented by the Survivors of the Residential school.
Land Acknowledgement
Assiniboia Residential School Commemorative Monument & Gathering Place is located at 621 Academy Road in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. We acknowledge we are on First Nations land, Turtle Island, inhabited by First Nations from time immemorial.For thousands of years, First Nations people—the Anishinaabe, Cree, Dakota, Dene, and Anishininew Nations—walked and lived on this land and knew it to be the centre of their lives and spirituality. The Anishinaabe call this land Manitou Ahbee, the place where the Creator resides.We acknowledge this became the homeland of the Métis people.We acknowledge and welcome the many people from countries all over the world who have come to join us, Turtle Island’s First Nations, in calling this land our home. We acknowledge we are now all bound together by Treaty 1.
—Theodore Fontaine