The final day of testimony at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings in Prince Albert has drawn to a close.
The city’s Friendship Centre has been full of tears and heartache this week as former residential school students struggle to recount the abuses that were done to them and the impact on their lives.
The stories told during the hearings in Prince Albert have affected the MC, former CBC Radio host Tom Roberts:
“As an MC, you’re supposed to be calm and collected, and be neutral. But being here for the last two-and-a-half days, it hasn’t been that for (me) listening to all you survivors. Because, I am, too, a survivor of the residential schools. It was hard keeping my emotions.”
Roberts says he was especially touched when Morley Norton, one of the toughest hockey players he knew, spoke.
Denise Choumont never went to residential school, but ended up in foster homes after no one was around to take care of her.
The young mother says she never realized until recently that the school’s legacy has affected her, even though she had never gone there.
She tearfully implored young people who are also dealing with the painful legacy of the schools not to give up hope:
“I guess I’m . . . I’m begging our young ones, no matter what age, that there is always hope . . . no matter how hard it gets, no matter the things we see and have been through . . . that you can’t leave our young ones, our loved ones, behind. The aftermath is unreal.”
TRC commissioner Marie Wilson began today’s proceedings by encouraging former students to share their ideas of what true reconciliation looks like to them:
“We also need now to be thinking about, ‘What does reconciliation mean going forward?’. We know that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission will end in two-and-a-half years. But surely the work of reconciliation must continue . . . it must continue. And in what ways? What does that mean? What do we need to be thinking about as family, as communities, as nations, and as a country?”
Another TRC commissioner says he is happy with the turnout at this week’s gathering.
Willie Littlechild feels having that many people in attendance has helped raise the confidence of the survivors telling their stories.
Littlechild says the community gatherings, like the one in Prince Albert, tend to draw out more emotion than the larger events.
A national gathering will take place in Saskatoon in June.