Interviewing Bill Williams by Rob Sargeant

I'm from the gold River reserve, and I'm working on a documentary called The Indigenous Success Stories, where I'll be filming those people that are successful in the professional field, be it teachers, doctors. I also want to interview people in the film and television industry. I want to interview students, especially to encourage them after watching this documentary that would encourage them to move on with their lives, that there is hope. Just looking at my life where I was born, with club feet and deaf in both ears and borderline retardation operations on both feet and ear operations, I was able to walk straight when I was ten. And then when I was 12, it was the first time that I heard. And after relearning what other students had already learned, I just found it difficult to really move on with my life. And I was a troubled child, and as a result, I was kicked out when I was 13 years old. So it was on my own since I was 13. From that, about two weeks after that, I got kicked out. I was kidnaped by a man raped and almost killed up in the mountains behind the reserve in Port Alberni. He left me for dead. When we went to court, the guy said to me that, well, I didn't kill you up in the mountains, but I will kill you when I get out. And I lived my life in fear, and this is what I want to encourage the viewers that they should not have to live in fear. Later on in life is that I forgave the fellow, and I went with my wife behind the reserve in Port Alberni, up in the mountains, and I went. And where? Up to the mountains where this happened. And I reached out my hand and I said, I forgive you, and I let you go. And it's almost as if his spirit left me, and I lived my life in peace. I think, more importantly, what really encouraged me in life is that I became a Christian when I was 15 years old, and I believe God always had his hand on me throughout my life in whatever I did, and that several times I tried killing myself when I was younger and that God was always there and he sent somebody when I tried to hang myself. When I hung myself, there was a knock at the door. And so I went to answer the door. And I always said to myself, don't they know I'm trying to kill myself?