Former Inuit students gathered with their fellow residential school survivors in Ottawa this past summer to witness the end of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. The closing ceremonies provided one last opportunity for the survivors to gather and share their often heartbreaking and inspirational stories of their time in residential schools. It also provided an opportunity for the commissioners and the aboriginal community to lay out a blueprint for how to proceed from there.
Looee Okalik and Commissioner Marie Wilson were a part of the journey and will share those experiences with you through these pages. We will also hear from Steven Cooper, a lawyer who has been fighting for Labrador residential school survivors, a group whose experiences still haven’t been recognized by either their federal or provincial government.
Nunavik’s Martha Greig has been helping her fellow survivors heal in her role as a Residential School Support Worker. She will tell us about that experience and how she dealt with her time in residential schools in her own words through our new Elder Q&A feature.
Like the work of the commission, we hope this edition will help all Canadians remember the legacy of residential schools.
