Sundance Robson has reclaimed his identity through his music, his business of helping others and by sharing his story.
Robson is the first generation in his family who did not attend residential school, but says he still inherited the intergenerational trauma.
“There were still things within the school system that I felt,” he said. “Part of my intergenerational story is the very first day (of school), I saw that my name on my little kindergarten box was changed. It didn’t say Sundance … and they were calling me Justin … (the school) told my parents that I couldn’t go by the name Sundance.”
That was his first-time experiencing identity crisis. Robson said his parents never explained to him growing up why his name was changed. Based on his late father’s experience, he describes residential school as being shadowed.
“People never, ever wanted them to be heard about or spoke about. It was this dark history that happened, but no one ever spoke of it,” he said. “I saw that when I was raised.”
He remembers his father had filed a lawsuit against the government for harms inflicted in residential school. But sadly, his father overdosed on heroin and died in 1999.
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“(When) he died, so did that lawsuit. He also died before there was ever an apology issued,” said Robson. “The stories that he told me about residential school as a kid was really hard for me to put those things together. When you hear that as a child about these stories, it’s hard for you to even believe it.”
Not only did Robson lose his traditional name but he became lost in a lifestyle addicted to drugs. However, it took time for him to find himself to reclaim his traditional name and rediscover his cultural roots.
“A couple of months after I got out of treatment, a friend asked me, ‘Do you want to come to a gong bath?’ And I thought, ‘What’s that?’ I went there, and I listened to the sound of the gong, it was just nice … there was a real peace and calmness that sort of came up around me when normally in my life I was always feeling a lot of anxiety. And then it reminded me of the very first time that my dad took me to a powwow.”
Robson is a co-founder of a local business called Sacred Compass Journey which is a holistic wellness center where he and his partner use sounds as a medium, traditional and non-traditional ceremony and storytelling.
On Feb. 15, 2024, Robson will share his journey and his late father’s legacy with others as part of Saskatchewan Aboriginal Storytelling Month. His presentation, called “White Feather: Intergenerational Stories Past, Present and Future,” can be heard at University of Regina’s Shumiatcher Open Stage.
“I have an opportunity to use my creativity,” he said. “I think by sharing (my) story, it just helps create a better understanding for all people to be able to build the bridge and for us to be able to work together towards reconciliation.”
For more information on Robson and other Indigenous storyteller performances throughout the month of February, visit the Library Services for Saskatchewan Aboriginal Peoples website.
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