Survivors seek support in wake of Pope’s apology for residential schools
CTV
Residential school survivors seeking support after Pope Francis’s apology are finding help at a sacred fire.
Residential school survivors seeking support after Pope Francis’s apology are finding help at a sacred fire.
Indigenous organizations are hosting the gathering in Winnipeg’s West End which coincides with the papal visit.
It’s where Sharron Hotomani, originally of Kahkewistahaw First Nation in Saskatchewan, finds comfort in good company.
She’s part of a group of residential school survivors, called the Indian Residential School Thrivers, who gathered at the sacred fire after the Pope apologized.
“I’m a survivor,” Hotomani said Tuesday. “I’m just thriving with my life but in the last week or so when I heard the Pope was coming it was bringing back too many flashbacks of bad memories.”
She said memories came flooding back of the residential schools she attended between the ages of six and 14 in Portage la Prairie, Man. and Brandon, Man.
On Monday, the Pope apologized for the cultural destruction and forced assimilation at the government-sponsored, church-run schools. Schools where Indigenous children were stripped of their language and culture and subjected to emotional, physical, psychological and sexual abuse.
