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	Residential School Survivors to Tell Their Stories By Christina Spencer Toronto Sun June 13, 2010 http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/06/13/14374671.html OTTAWA - Two years after the federal government apologized for the wrongs done to native people during the era of the Indian Residential Schools, a unique five-year initiative aimed at national reconciliation kicks off this week in Winnipeg. A panel of three commissioners will hear searing personal stories from many former students of the state-financed, church-run schools. The students suffered physically and culturally because of the government's policy, over more than a century, of separating native children from their parents and communities. The Winnipeg gathering is seen as a key rallying event for residential-school survivors. In addition to publicizing their stories, it will feature artistic exhibits, music, sweat lodge ceremonies and academic meetings. "We all believe very strongly that this is a huge, historic opportunity for Canada," said Marie Wilson, one of the three commissioners on the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which has organized the event. "There's no way to conclude that the realities we see in Canada today facing aboriginal people are not directly tied to the experiences and circumstances and legacy of residential schools." Wilson will join fellow commissioners Justice Murray Sinclair, the chair, and Chief Wilton Littlechild at the gathering, which is expected to draw more than 5,000 people over four days. Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl will also attend. The Winnipeg meeting is the first of seven major "reconciliation" events to be held across Canada. From the 1870s on, church groups ran about 130 residential schools. They plucked children from aboriginal communities. More than 150,000 First Nations, Metis and Inuit where separated from their families, often against their will, and prohibited from speaking their languages or following their own cultural practices. Many suffered severe abuse. The last residential school closed in the 1990s. "There's going to be some horrible stories coming out" at the Winnipeg gathering, Strahl told QMI Agency. "People should brace themselves for some very sad and almost incredible stories." As difficult as the personal tales may be, Wilson sees them as an important step in healing for aboriginals and education for non-aboriginals. "How is it that we can have something that was so dramatically harmful to one of the founding people, and over so many years, and have not been taught about it in our school curricula? How is it we can all graduate and say I didn't know anything about that?" she asks. But she is fundamentally optimistic that aboriginals and non-aboriginal Canadians will acknowledge and reconcile their histories. "I just know that when we have people coming together with good intentions … good things are bound to happen. So I'm very excited."
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