The fourth annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was honoured in the Cree Nation with two moving events in Mistissini. With Cree and provincial leaders in attendance, Chief Michael Petawabano announced the future location of a monument to honour community members who attended residential school.
Standing as a symbol to commemorate the resilience of survivors and the memory of those who never returned home, the monument will become a place of healing for those still carrying the weight of residential school experiences and intergenerational trauma. Parents would gather at this beach where the access road to Mistissini then ended, eagerly waiting for their children returning home from residential school each June.
It was here that William and Betsy Rabbitskin waited for their nine-year-old daughter Juliette in 1966 before learning from other children that she had died in La Tuque earlier that spring. Their devastation was felt throughout the community, and they never had the opportunity to grieve their loss.
On September 30, Juliette Rabbitskin was finally laid to rest in her home community after being exhumed from La Tuque 10 days earlier. The long process had been initiated seven years ago by her cousin Emily Rabbitskin, who had been so inseparable from Juliette that many assumed they were twins.
“When they took us at age six, they wanted to separate us, but Juliette kept holding onto me, so they put us in the same room as my older sister Caroline,” Emily told the Nation. “She was a very sweet little girl. She would always follow me – even to the bathroom.”
Born deaf and mute in 1957, Juliette pronounced her name “Jewwah” and would communicate with Emily through sign language. With sparkling eyes and a constant smile, Juliette enjoyed sewing and helping with chores like folding clothes whenever she could. Although no photograph remains, Emily still remembers her vividly.
Despite being forcibly taken from her parents, who were threatened with losing their family allowance and other vital benefits if they refused, Juliette was like a light in that often-dark situation, always ready to offer a loving hug.
When Juliette’s fever spiked for days after a virus outbreak at the school, she was taken to the nurse by Mary Coon and Caroline Rabbitskin, who at age 11 were like big sisters. They never saw her again and later learned she had died that day. With Emily and other children under quarantine, only Caroline and two of Juliette’s brothers were permitted to attend the funeral.
“I always thought that I left something very precious behind, an angel of mine,” said Emily. “It really affected my life. Nobody asked where we wanted Juliette to be buried – for a long time, I felt a lot of anger and pain.”
The determination to bring Juliette home came after first visiting her grave, which was finally located along the cemetery’s treeline all alone. With the help of Ashley Iserhoff, Emily started the process that involved several individuals from Mistissini, the government and the Anglican Church before a successful court hearing on June 6, 2024.
Reverend Bruce Myers, the Anglican Bishop of Quebec, first heard Juliette’s story as a representative at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2013. After the unmarked graves in Kamloops made national news in 2021, Myers reached the family via Reverend George Westgate in Mistissini to discuss bringing Juliette home.
Juliette’s seven surviving siblings approved the move, with younger sister Kathleen Rabbitskin helping to meet key decision makers. Born in 1962 and taken to La Tuque at age four, it was more than a decade later that Kathleen discovered during a visit to her cousins that she had an older sister who had died at the same school.
“I guess it was too painful for my parents to talk about,” Kathleen reflected. “I find we were never happy and there was nobody to hug us or say I love you. All the stuff that parents do with their kids – there was no affection at all.”
Kathleen remembers awful food and living in fear of the staff. Kids were regularly taken into a room and came out crying. Once a teacher boxed her ears in punishment, resulting in subsequent earaches and health problems. While she’s kept contact with some former schoolmates, they never talk about La Tuque.
“When I found out I had a sister named Juliette and had my own child, I named her Juliet,” said Kathleen. “I love it – it brings comfort. We used to stop at La Tuque cemetery. Juliet said, ‘Mom, it has my name on it.’ That’s when she started asking me questions.”
Now it’s Kathleen’s grandchildren asking questions, although she’s sometimes too emotional to provide answers. This reburial has brought her family closure and she’s glad she doesn’t have to travel to La Tuque anymore to visit her late sister.
Juliet Rabbitskin Loon was instrumental in completing the reburial process, communicating with officials in French and moving the bureaucracy along. She called forward her children during her powerful eulogy, demonstrating how young her family members were when Juliette passed.
“They always had this sense of guilt, blaming themselves,” explained Rabbitskin Loon. “I wanted to demonstrate that it wasn’t their responsibility in hope to bring healing to them. They should not have to carry that.”
While the family unanimously expressed feeling lighter following the reburial, the exhumation on September 20 was a more tense affair. It took the whole day to find Juliette’s body, which was finally identified near sunset with her hospital bracelet and two buttons.
Two years after Juliette Rabbitskin Park was inaugurated on the site of the former residential school in La Tuque, busloads of children joined political and religious leaders to honour her memory in Mistissini. Rabbitskin Loon, whose daughter Mariah drew the image printed on commemorative purple shirts, hoped this will unburden Emily, hospitalized earlier this year with heart issues.
“It’s like a load from my soul was lifted, that’s how happy I was,” said Emily Rabbitskin. “I felt peace after – now people can visit her here at the graveyard. That night I was really drained, and I slept for two days.”