CBC News [Canada]
May 26, 2006
http://www.cbc.ca/calgary/story/ca-residential-day-20060526.html
It has taken nearly fifty years for Muriel Betsina to gain self-confidence after the physical and emotional abuse she recalls at the native residential school she attended.
There are still parts of her past she struggles with. "I didn't know what love is. I didn't know how to kiss my children, I didn't know," she told CBC News.
On Friday, groups across Canada marked a National Day of Healing and Reconciliation, a day officially recognized in the Northwest Territories, where Betsina lives, although not yet in much of the rest of the country.
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| Aboriginal children were taken from their families and put in residential schools. |
Events included a gathering of elders at the Nisga?a Valley Health Authority in Aiyansh, B.C.; an all-day commemorative walk from Blue Quills Residential School to Saddle Lake Healing Lodge in the St. Paul, Alta., area; and a social tea at BTC Indian Health Services in North Battleford, Sask., among many others.
In Edmonton, where the movement for a national healing day has its roots, Metis dancers and singers performed at city hall.
"We sort of walk in both worlds, half in the aboriginal side and half in the non-aboriginal side and at times we're accepted on neither side," said Don Langford, executive director of the Metis Child and Family Services Society. "I think by preaching tolerance and inclusion [it] makes it easier for all of us to get along with each other."
Langford says these kinds of events give a real boost to young Metis children.
Taking back control
Joachim Bonnetrouge, project co-ordinator with the Residential School Society in Fort Providence, N.W.T, said he has seen a significant increase in the number of people, like Betsina, who take control of their lives and go through a healing process.
"People are beginning to become aware in realizing their role and responsibilities for their family and the communities," he said.
For generations, Indian and Inuit children were routinely taken from their homes to be educated in residential schools, many of them run for the government by church groups.
Countless youngsters endured strict discipline, separation from their families and the loss of traditional skills, language and culture. Some also suffered sexual abuse, a matter that has since become the focus of legal and arbitration proceedings.
Betsina said she hopes to pass on a lesson to her children and grandchildren on this day of healing.
"I know I can deal with it. I understand what I've been through, but I forgive … and that's the hardest thing to ever do, is to forgive."
In Australia, a similar day was marked on Friday.
National Sorry Day commemorates the forced removal of thousands of Aborigine children from their families. They are widely referred to as Australia's stolen generations.
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