Lila Bruyere does not call herself strong. But the 71-year-old demonstrates every day just how strong she is.
Whether it is by proving doctors wrong, graduating with a Master’s degree from Wilfrid Laurier, organizing walks in Sarnia for Orange Shirt Day, or sharing her story of surviving a residential school, anyone on the outside would see the strength it took to achieve any of this. Bruyere, however, has another word for it.
“I call myself bullheaded,” she says.
Bruyere has been sharing her story of being a residential school survivor for several years, but now she is ready to share it on a different stage.
Bangishimo Johnston, one of Bruyere’s three sons, is working alongside his mother to bring her story of survival to the screen, in the form of a documentary called “I Am Water.”
“Being a residential school survivor is a big topic. And it's very hard to do because we lost everything. We lost our identity. And so I always wanted to share my story because. I really believe that it's important,” explains Bruyere.
“I was blessed to be able to do this, to be able to talk about it. When I first started talking and sharing my story, I used to literally get sick. But through therapy, and every time I spoke, I got stronger.”
In Canada, between 1870 and 1996, more than 150,000 First Nations, Metis, and Inuit children were placed in residential schools.
Bruyere attended St. Margaret’s Residential School in Fort Francis, from the age of six to fourteen, suffering years of physical and mental abuse.
“I use a walker, and thanks to the nuns who always aimed to beat me on my back, it’s why I have trouble walking today,” shares Bruyere.
“My doctor said to me, ‘One day you're going to be in a scooter’, and I would never be able to walk, and I said, that ain't happening. And I told him as long as I can walk, I'm going to walk.”
While Bruyere has many stories detailing her suffering while attending the residential school, it won’t be the focus of the documentary.
“I’m going to mention the traumas, but I'm not going to deal into it. What I'm going to focus on is the resiliency. What I did about it, how did I get where I am,” says Bruyere.
Bruyere has lived quite a life. Overcoming addiction, she is celebrating being 36 years sober on October 23rd. Bruyere also graduated with her Master’s from Wilfrid Laurier alongside another one of her sons, Shaun.
“We were the first indigenous mother and son to graduate together. We joked about it because when we graduated we had a TV camera following us around and they asked me, ‘Are you going to go for your PhD?’ I said, are you crazy? I'll be 90 by the time I'm done,” she laughs.
Her son, Johnson, hopes to start telling his mother's story next summer and has used a Go Fund Me to get donations to help offset the cost of filming. The pair also plan to apply for provincial funding. Once the documentary is filmed Bruyere already has a plan on where to screen it first.
“Western University wants to launch it. But I would rather launch it here, probably at Lambton College or downtown at the library. Because this is where it started, the fundraising. And this is where my support is, you know, it's here.”
If you wish to donate to the documentary’s production costs, please click here.