Chanie "Charlie" Wenjack (January 19, 1954October 23, 1966) was an

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

(

Anishinaabe The Anishinaabeg (adjectival: Anishinaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples present in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe (including Saulteaux and Oji-Cree), Odawa, Potawato ...

) First Nations boy who ran away from Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School, where he boarded for three years in

Kenora Kenora (), previously named Rat Portage (french: Portage-aux-Rats), is a city situated on the Lake of the Woods in Ontario, Canada, close to the Manitoba boundary, and about east of Winnipeg by road. It is the seat of Kenora District. The hi ...

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, Canada. He died of hunger and exposure at

Farlane, Ontario Farlane is an unincorporated place in Unorganized Kenora District, Unorganized Kenora District in Northwestern Ontario, northwestern Ontario, Canada. It lies on the Canadian National Railway Transcontinental railroad, transcontinental Main line ...

, while trying to walk 600 km (370 mi) back to his home, Ogoki Post on the Marten Falls Reserve. His ordeal and his death brought attention to the treatment of children in the

Canadian Indian residential school system In Canada, the Indian residential school system was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous peoples. The network was funded by the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs and administered by Christian churches. The schoo ...

: following Wenjack's death, an inquest into the matter was ordered by the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown-i ...

Early life, education and escape

Chanie Wenjack was born on January 19, 1954, at Ogoki Post on the Marten Falls Reserve. In 1963, when he was nine, Wenjack and three of his sisters were sent to Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School in Kenora. The school, which housed approximately 150 students at the time, was funded by the Canadian government and overseen by the Women’s Missionary Society of the

Presbyterian Church Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their na ...

. Wenjack spent the first two years of his schooling in grade one and was put in

remedial classes Remedy, Remedies, The Remedy or Remediation may refer to: Computing and gaming * Remedy Corp, an American software company * Remedy Entertainment, a Finnish video game developer Law, politics, and society * Environmental remediation, the remov ...

soon after. He was known to have a good sense of humour, according to the school principal, and was often the first to recognize wordplay. On the morning of October 16, 1966, Wenjack and two of his friends, orphaned brothers Ralph and Jackie MacDonald, ran away from the Cecilia Jeffrey School, making it as far as Redditt, north of Kenora. The three boys stayed with Ralph and Jackie's uncle, Charley Kelly, in Redditt. After four days with the Kellys, Wenjack left to follow the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...

(CN) mainline, heading towards Ogoki Post, east and north from Kenora. He had found a CN passenger timetable which included a map and was using it as guide to get back home. The Kellys gave him some food and matches and suggested that he ask for help from the section maintenance crews stationed along the line.

Death

Wenjack had only a light windbreaker and walked for 36 hours in the wind as the temperature dropped to . Evidence given at the inquest into his death showed that he had made his way another east along the CN mainline. Bruises indicated that he fell several times. He collapsed and died sometime on the morning of October 23 in a rock cut near Farlane. His body was discovered beside the track at 11:20 am on October 23 by Elwood McIvor, a CN railway engineer on freight train number No. 821. Elwood contacted the

Ontario Provincial Police The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is the provincial police service of Ontario, Canada. Under its provincial mandate, the OPP patrols provincial highways and waterways, protects provincial government buildings and officials, patrols unincor ...

(OPP) who recovered the body an hour later with help from a CN section crew. Coroner Dr. Glenn Davidson determined the cause of the death was attributed to exposure and hunger. On October 27, 1966, Wenjack was buried at the cemetery on the reserve beside the

Albany River Albany, derived from the Gaelic for Scotland, most commonly refers to: *Albany, New York, the capital of the State of New York and largest city of this name *Albany, Western Australia, port city in the Great Southern Albany may also refer to: ...

Inquest and aftermath

On November 17 an inquest was begun and a report was commissioned and determined that: Ethical questions were raised and it brought to light the abuse and treatment of Indigenous children in the residential school system. A year after Wenjack's death, an article written by journalist Ian Adams, "The Lonely Death of Charlie Wenjack," was published in February 1967 in ''

Maclean's ''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian persp ...

'' magazine. The article brought the ordeal to national attention. The Wenjack affair along with many other incidents would bring legislative reforms and class action lawsuits as well as the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Impact

Today the story of Wenjack has been seen as a symbol of resistance against the residential school system. In 1973, Indigenous students at

Trent University Trent University is a public liberal arts university in Peterborough, Ontario, with a satellite campus in Oshawa, which serves the Regional Municipality of Durham. Trent is known for its Oxbridge college system and small class sizes.

lobbied for a building to be named after Wenjack. The largest lecture hall on campus was subsequently named Wenjack Theatre in Wenjack's honour. On March 9, 2018, Trent University marked the official launch of the Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies. In 2016, the Gord Downie-Chanie Wenjack Fund was established to help with reconciliation between Canada and

Indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

Popular culture

On June 21, 2016, a

Heritage Minute ''The Heritage Minutes'' is a series of sixty-second short films, each illustrating an important moment in Canadian history. The ''Minutes'' integrate Canadian history, folklore and myths into dramatic storylines. Like the Canada Vignettes of ...

about Wenjack's death was released by

Historica Canada Historica Canada is a Canadian charitable organization dedicated to promoting the country's history and citizenship. All of its programs are offered bilingually and reach more than 28 million Canadians annually. A registered national charitabl ...

to coincide with National Aboriginal Day. Unlike other Heritage Minutes that were narrated by actors, Wenjack's was narrated by his sister, Pearl.

The Tragically Hip The Tragically Hip, often referred to simply as the Hip, were a Canadian rock band formed in Kingston, Ontario in 1984, consisting of vocalist Gord Downie, guitarist Paul Langlois, guitarist Rob Baker (known as Bobby Baker until 1994), bassi ...

singer

Gord Downie Gordon Edgar Downie (February 6, 1964 – October 17, 2017) was a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, musician, writer and activist. He was the singer and lyricist for the Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip, which he fronted from its for ...

wrote a

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. So ...

based on Wenjack's escape. The album, ''

Secret Path ''Secret Path'' is a Canadian multimedia storytelling project including a ten-song music album and tour, a graphic novel, an animated television film, and instructional materials. Released on October 18, 2016,graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

of Wenjack's story by novelist

Jeff Lemire Jeff Lemire (; born March 21, 1976) is a Canadian comic book writer, artist, and television producer. He is the author of critically acclaimed titles including the '' Essex County Trilogy'', '' Sweet Tooth'', and ''The Nobody''. His written work i ...

and an animated film which aired on

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French- ...

. Published in October 2016, a novella by Canadian author

Joseph Boyden Joseph Boyden (born October 31, 1966) is a Canadian novelist and short story writer of Irish and Scottish descent. He also claims Indigenous descent, but this is widely disputed. Joseph Boyden is best known for writing about First Nations cult ...

focused on the suffering Wenjack endured and his state of mind during his ordeal. Its title is simply '' Wenjack''. The novella was released alongside '' Snip'', an animated short film by Terril Calder. "Charlie", a song recorded in 1971 by singer-songwriter

Willie Dunn Willy or Willie is a masculine, male given name, often a diminutive form of William or Wilhelm, and occasionally a nickname. It may refer to: People Given name or nickname * Willie Aames (born 1960), American actor, television director, and sc ...

about Wenjack, was not well-known at the time, but received renewed attention in the early 2020s following the release of both ''Secret Path'' and the Dunn compilation album ''Creation Never Sleeps, Creation Never Dies''.Brad Wheeler
"A new anthology celebrates the pioneering Indigenous troubadour, filmmaker and activist Willie Dunn"
'' The Globe and Mail'', March 24, 2021.

References

External links

Heritage Minutes: Chanie Wenjack

The Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack Fund
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wenjack, Chanie 1954 births 1966 deaths Indigenous child displacement in Canada Deaths by starvation Deaths from hypothermia Ojibwe people People from Kenora District 20th-century First Nations people Canadian children Burials in Ontario First Nations history in Ontario Child deaths