More tears are being shed today at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearing taking place in La Ronge.
Joan Olsen told her story earlier today at the Jonas Roberts Memorial Community Centre.
She says she was taken to the school in Prince Albert when she was so little she could barely get up the stairs on the bus.
When the children arrived, the boys and girls were separated and everyone had their hair cut.
Olsen says the church and school tried to kill the Indian in her, and she never learned the day-to-day skills normally associated with a family setting:
“But when you’re a child like that, you don’t grow up being hugged. You’re never in a kitchen to be told how to cook. You’re forever, day after day the next several years, lining up with a tray to get your food.”
Another former student, Douglas Richard Halkett, testified about his first trip to the residential school in Prince Albert in 1978.
Halkett said he was just ten years old at the time and felt neglected and abandoned at the institution.
He was later sexually abused and then told to keep quiet when he went to supervisors for help:
“I told my caregiver what had happened — and I was told not to say anything to anybody around me, or at school or anywhere that I was. So, I remained quiet there.”
Years later, when the government offered compensation to survivors, Halkett went to see a lawyer — only to find the lawyer was related to the person who abused him.
He eventually found an attorney after multiple tries and is moving forward with his case.
Despite the years of pain he endured, Halkett says he is still proud to be Cree and feels lighter now that he is finally being heard.
The TRC wraps up its hearings in La Ronge tomorrow.