'A dramatic shift': Residential school survivor, Indigenous leader respond to Pope's use of word genocide

WARNING: This story contains distressing details

It's about time. 

That was the response from a residential school survivor in Winnipeg on Pope Francis's unqualified use of the word genocide to describe what happened to Indigenous Peoples forced to attend the schools in Canada.

"It's about time that they use these kind of words to describe what happened to our people. It's about time that we're saying words that have meaning and truth," said Jennifer Wood, who works with the Winnipeg-based National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. 

"And that for it to come from the highest of the Vatican, saying it in our homeland, it's going to bear a lot of weight on governments, on agencies, on the churches," said Wood, who hails from Neyaashiinigmiig First Nation in Ontario. She was forced to attend a residential school in Portage la Prairie, Man.

The Pope used the word on the papal flight from Iqaluit to Rome late Friday, after spending six days in Canada on a "penitential pilgrimage" of reconciliation in which he apologized for the Catholic Church's role in running many of the schools.

WATCH | Pope says Canada's residential school system amounted to genocide:

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in Winnipeg, which holds the records gathered by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, has so far documented 4,118 children who died at residential schools.

In his multiple speeches over the week, Pope Francis described the residential school system as a policy of assimilation and enfranchisement, and that it harmed families by undermining their language, culture and worldview.

"Yes, it's a technical word, genocide. I didn't use it because it didn't come to mind. But yes, I described it. Yes, it's a genocide," the pontiff told reporters on the outbound flight.

Wood and colleagues from the NCTR attended the Pope's first appearance and apology in Maskwacis, Alta., wearing T–shirts with the names of the dead children on them. She said she was glad to be able to represent their memory at the event. 

She remembers those children when thinking about the Pope's use of the term genocide.

"It's a deliberate destruction on our family, our identity and our culture. It's forced assimilation," Wood said. "You're taking your way of life away from an entire people in our homeland, Canada. So I'm very happy that he's coming out and saying words that are the truth."

The Pope's comments caught a longtime Indigenous leader off-guard.