BishopAccountability.org
	Legacy of Residential Schools Remembered By Kiply Lukan Yaworski Canadian Christianity March 20, 2008 http://www.canadianchristianity.com/nationalupdates/080320legacy.html SASKATOON -- Some 500 people attended the Saskatoon portion of a national 'Remembering the Children' tour of Aboriginal and church leaders, held as a promotion and preparation for the much-anticipated Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The establishment of the commission is one element of an Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement reached between the government, churches and Aboriginal organizations in 2006. Once established, the commission will spend five years promoting public education and awareness of the residential school system and its legacy, as well as providing former students, families and communities with an opportunity to share their experiences. Aboriginal leaders joined church leaders from the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian and United Church denominations in the tour, which also included stops in Ottawa, Vancouver and Winnipeg. Rev. Jan Bigland-Pritchard of the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism, which hosted the Saskatoon stop March 9 at the Western Development Museum, greeted participants and Elders Ethel and Hector Ahenekew led the gathering in prayer. Hector Ahenekew described how he had been asked to come early to lead a traditional smudging ceremony. "When my dad was young this was looked down upon," he said. "To see the bishops come up for smudging was really something. I want to thank them for not looking down on it." David MacDonald, the United Church's special advisor on residential schools, invited all survivors of residential schools attending the gathering to stand and be acknowledged. "When we say we are Remembering the Children, we are remembering you," he said. Chief Lawrence Joseph of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) welcomed the tour to Treaty 6 territory on behalf of 122,000 registered status Indians and all First Nations peoples, Metis and Inuit. Church and state must work together, he asserted. "We ask for your prayers that we will come out of this in the loving way that the Creator has willed for us." Both Aboriginal and church leaders spoke poignantly of the legacy of the residential schools and their policies of assimilation. Between 1857 and 1969, thousands of children were removed from their families and taken to residential schools. Established across Canada by the federal government, the schools were largely administered by church organizations. Children attending the schools were forced to relinquish their language and culture; family ties were broken, sometimes forever. In the process, many endured physical, emotional or sexual abuse. The devastation caused by those institutions is not something of the past, said Joseph, describing how the effects can be seen today in addictions, in dependency, in children on the street and in prison. When media covering First Nations issues "tell us it's got nothing to do with treaties, it's got nothing to do with residential schools, think again. That intergenerational pain and suffering are alive and well today." Joseph said that when news of the tour came out, FSIN members were reluctant to participate, in light of so many past failures and broken promises. However, he said, he has discovered sincerity in the words of church leaders. He called for a process of reconciliation that includes the righting of wrongs and resources dedicated to rebuilding lives that have been ruined. "We're not asking for pity. We're asking for acknowledgement and understanding," he said. Anglican Bishop Mark MacDonald spoke of the experiences of a friend who had been taken from her family as a child. He described some of the conditions she endured, "but the real pain came later, when she realized she had no home to go to." Church involvement in the schools was "was a denial of who we were," said the bishop. "It was a denial of our deepest commitments, of our fondest hopes and of the promises we made to the people of the land when we as church entered into this area." He said the Truth and Reconciliation Commission "is a way to welcome the survivors home" as well as a way for the institutions that took part to "return home" to their deepest ideals. "We have to acknowledge that the strength of our future is dependent on remembering these children." Ted Quewezance, executive director of the National Residential School Survivors' Society, related his own experience, of being taken away from his grandparents. "All I had was my grandparents, and the government of Canada, Indian Affairs, came and dragged me away and they told my grandpa, 'If you don't let this little boy go, you'll be going to jail.' " Sexually abused from the age of five by people in positions of trust, he spoke of the trauma of eventually revealing his experiences to his wife and five daughters, and of being called a liar in court. "I'm still here," he said, "and many, many survivors across the country are still here." The legacy of the Residential Schools continues to haunt society, he said. "A lot of people were institutionalized when they were little boys and little girls, and they graduated into the correctional centres, into the penitentiaries." Hoe expressed hope that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission would assist in healing and in raising public awareness about what happened. The 2006 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement has been reached and common experience payments are going into the hands of survivors, Quewezance said. Elders are investing money in their children and grandchildren, "and many of our survivors have injected those dollars in their local economies." But money alone will not bring about healing, he stressed. Ensuring that the truth about the Residential Schools be told is an important part of the agreement. Church representatives described their denomination's involvement in the system and shared apologies and words of regret with the gathering. Speakers included Rev. Hans Kouwenberg, moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada; Rev. David Giuliano, moderator of the United Church of Canada; Rev. Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada; Bishop Albert LeGatt of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon; Archbishop Sylvain Lavoie, OMI, of Keewatin-Le Pas; and Sister Rita Bisson, PM. The Saskatoon event included a performance by the choirs of Mayfair United and St. Andrew's Presbyterian churches and the drumming group Young Thunder who led the gathering in a round dance to conclude the evening.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.