Sask. Residential School Survivors Share Experiences

By David Kirton
CJME
January 16, 2012

http://cjme.com/story/sask-residential-school-survivors-share-experiences/39742

Regina residential school

Truth and Reconciliation hearings currently taking place in Regina

Residential school survivors are sharing their experiences at a hearing hosted by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which is taking place until Wednesday at the First Nations University of Canada in Regina.

The hearings are designed to provide opportunities for all Canadians, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, to learn about the dark legacy of the residential school system.

More hearings will be held later this month on the Key First Nation and in Prince Albert leading up to the Saskatchewan National Event, which will be held on June 21-24 in Saskatoon.

Elder Irene Favel, who was eight-years-old when first taken from her parents, was among the first to share her experience in a residential school. She remembers what a nun did at her school after a young girl gave birth to a baby.

"There was this nun walking with this little pink bundle. Right into the furnace, they burnt that little baby's body," recalls Favel.

Elder Kirby Littletent recalls that the program that was designed to "rip the Indian out of the child", and fears that is what the government is still trying to do today.

"Our treaties, everything like that, is going to be ripped away," said Littletent.

"They want us to be destroyed."