Elder Says Gatherings Take Toll On Former Students

Elder Says Gatherings Take Toll On Former Students

Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 14:43

An elder from the James Smith Cree Nation says he thinks residential school survivors should be given more help when attending large gatherings.

This week several dozen survivors of the residential school experience are in Prince Albert to hear details about the compensation process.

Former student Keith Burns says conferences like this are good as they provide a lot of information about the process.

However he feels it’s the human factor that gets lost.

“I think that the downside of it is that quite often survivors are opened up and they’re not closed back up again.  Like when they leave here they’re left open and they’re still suffering from all the abuses, the memories of it.  And it’s really hard.”

Burns says counseling and mental health professionals are both needed.