Church leaders apologize to Indigenous youth, elders for residential schools

Saskatchewan church leaders have apologized to Indigenous youth and elders for the intergenerational trauma caused by residential schools.

Saskatchewan church leaders have apologized to Indigenous youth and elders for the intergenerational trauma caused by residential schools.

Leaders from the Roman Catholic Church, United Church and Presbyterian Church in Canada made the apologies at the former site of the Round Lake Indian Residential School on Tuesday.

The apologies are part of a three-day youth and elder gathering at Camp McKay. Participants from neighbouring First Nations, including Ochapowace and Cowessess, attended the event in the hopes of gaining traditional knowledge from their elders.

“I learned stuff that I didn’t even know happened to our people throughout our history,” said Joshua Deschambault, whose father attended day school.

“It was hard to learn some of that, but I think we need to know it. We need to know our history in order not to repeat it or not to be controlled by it.”

Mary Fontaine, the first Indigenous moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, apologized on behalf of the institution that operated the Round Lake School from 1888 to 1925.

“It’s kind of odd that I’m an Indigenous person apologizing on behalf of the church, so I have to say more than just read the apology,” Fontaine told the group.