Biography
Lily (Gull) Sutherland
Lily was born at the Old Post of Waswanipi, Quebec in 1947. In 1965 the community population relocated to highway 113 that runs between Val-D’or and Chibougamau, Quebec. The Old Post of Waswanipi was informed that the tiny island community would be flooded from hydro projects.
She was taken away to residential school at the age of 6 to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. There she attended the Shingwauk Residential School for 7 years. She is a graduate of Sault Tech and Commercial High School. From there, she continued her studies and graduated from Ethel Gould College in Ottawa as a Medical Assistant.
Today, Lily is in Public Health at the Cree First Nation of Waswanipi, QC. She has been elected twice to serve on the Board of Directors for Cree Board of Health and Social Services of James Bay Quebec. Her present term ends in July 2010.
Lily feels that it is most gratifying to be in her present employment because it covers many aspects of the community. The areas that she’s been involved with are social health, the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and the effects of residential schools. Her home community of Waswanipi has been affected by 7 residential schools, 4 in Ontario and 3 in Quebec. Lily is currently the Quebec Regional Director for the National Residential School Survivors Society.
She sincerely appreciates her decision to have returned home for 25 years now. She has grown close with her immediate and extended family, but most off all her grandchildren.
Waswanipi, QC