Gathering remembers boys who fled Inuvik residential school decades ago

Nearly 50 years after fleeingresidential school in Inuvik, three boys who attempted a harrowing journey to Tuktoyaktuk are being honoured.

Bernard Andreason and his friendsDennis Dick and Lawrence Jack Elanik ran away from their residential school in Inuvik in June 1972. Andreason and Elanik were 11 at the time, and Dick was 13. They departed on foot over land, trying to get back home to Tuktoyaktuk, roughly 130 kilometres north over an immense landscape of lakes, riversand brush.

After two weeks, only Andreason made it home.

On Thursday afternoon, a ceremony was held to honour Andreasonand his friends. Andreason, who turns 58 in August, says he still misses them.

"[I think of them] when I accomplish something," he said.

"If I graduate from a program, or if I graduate from school, or I've done something to better my education I think of them, and I wonder, 'would they be in my shoes? Would they do the same thing I would do? How would they feel being here today?'"

This is the first time a ceremony has been held to honour their experience.

"I want people to know about what it was like to run away from people that are mean, that just want to punish you," Andreason said.

'Overwhelming' empathy

Steve Dagar is one of the people who came up with the idea for the ceremony.

Dagar teaches Grade 9 atEast Three Secondary School in Inuvik. He and another teacher wanted to teach a unit on truth and reconciliation, and when they learned the story of the three boys who had escaped from residential school, they knew it was something they wanted to bring to their classrooms.

Dagar said many of his students were relatives of one of the three boys, or knew someone who was, so for them this unit was very personal.

"Once they started really delving into the story of Bernard, Dennis and Jack, the amount of empathy these students have shown has been overwhelming. The engagement has been great," he said.

The ceremony began at 1:30 p.m. at the Inuvik gun range near the start of the InuvikTuktoyaktuk Highway.

The highway was expected to be closed until 3 p.m for the ceremony.

Andreason plans to return to Tuktoyaktuk on July 11 for another ceremony on the anniversary of the day he arrived back in 1972.