After Pope's apology, 'now the hard work starts,' says former AFN Chief Phil Fontaine

WARNING: This story contains distressing details

Pope Francis's apology to Indigenous delegates in Rome is by no means the end of the work to help survivors, says former Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Phil Fontaine. 

"We never, ever believed that the apology was the final moment in this long, tragic story about residential schools," he told The Current's Matt Galloway.

"Now the hard work starts."

The Pope has been meeting with Indigenous delegations at the Vatican all week to discuss the impact of Canada's residential school system. On Friday, during a final public audience, he spoke of "sorrow and shame" for the actions of some members of the Catholic Church in the institutions.

WATCH | Pope Francis apologizes to Indigenous delegates

More than 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were forced to attend residential schools between the 1870s and 1990s, a project of church and government established to "take the Indian out of the child." The TRC's final 2015 report described the system as "cultural genocide."

"For the deplorable conduct of these members of the Catholic Church, I ask for God's forgiveness and I want to say to you with all my heart, I am very sorry. And I join my brothers, the Canadian bishops, in asking your pardon," the Pope said Friday. 

Fontaine said he wasn't expecting to hear an apology at the Vatican, but thought it would come when the Pope visits Canada. The Pope said that he hopes to come here "in the days" around the church's Feast of St. Anne, which falls on July 26.

When that time comes, Fontaine hopes the pontiff "will expand on those words that he spoke today."

The former chief thinks the apology is an opportunity for Indigenous communities "to engage with the Catholic Church and others, to begin anew this relationship that has been so completely shattered." 

The Vatican also has to be willing "to fashion a new kind of institution that speaks more positively about the cultural differences that exist between our people and the Church," he said.

While he said financial compensation is only one part of the wider issue, he pointed to fundraising efforts from Canadian bishops, to raise $30 million over five years. (Critics have said that time frame is too long, and called on the Vatican to provide compensation from its own assets.)

Fontaine also said the return of artifacts and the establishment of a museum could be explored.