“Garnet’s Journey” helps us understand the legacy of colonization and the residential school experience through one man’s life story. Garnet Angeconeb is an Anishnaabe man from the Lac Seul First Nation near Sioux Lookout. He is a survivor of the Indian Residential School system. On this website, we get a glimpse of his life on the trap line, an in-depth and thoughtful account of his six years at residential school, the “lost years” that followed, and then his own healing journey.

Through his words, we come to understand the dreadful impact his experiences at the school had on him, many other students, his family, and his community – an impact reflected in the health and education crises facing Aboriginal communities today. His story is not unique; in fact, it reflects many common experiences of Indigenous people living in Canada today. But Garnet’s ability and willingness to tell that story, with a goal to educate and reconcile, is courageous and exceptional.

Garnet and his journalist friend and colleague, Ashley, have created this website together to achieve this goal. They wanted to help all Canadians understand the Indigenous experience through a lens that acknowledges our shared history. They believe education about the residential school system will lead to a brighter future, and to better relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians.