The Act to Encourage the Gradual Civilization of Indian Tribes in this Province, and to Amend the Laws Relating to Indians (commonly known as the Gradual Civilization Act) requires that all Indian males over the age of 21 who can speak, read, and write English or French will be “enfranchised,” meaning that they must renounce their Indian status and become a British subject.

The Récollets, a religious order from France, establish the first residential school, near Québec City.

Aboriginal education had long been a priority for both Aboriginal and British (and later Canadian) leaders and governments. However, the political and economic changes brought about by events in the nineteenth century soon made it a critical one. Astutely realizing the long-term impact of these changes on their traditional lives and cultures, a number of Aboriginal leaders engaged in negotiations with religious orders and government officials to create an equitable education system for all.

The Récollets, a religious order from France, establish the first residential school, near Québec City.

By the year 1880, eleven schools were operating in the Dominion of Canada.

The Indian Act is enacted and gives government exclusive right to create legislation regarding Indians and Indian lands. This act identifies who is an Indian and establishes related legal rights.

Clearly, the Dominion’s new government had much work to do. Politicians immediately got busy drafting the necessary legislation, and in the early decades of Confederation, they passed the following two acts: the Act for the Gradual Civilization of the Indian (1869), which called for “All Indians to be civilized,” and the Indian Act (1876), which legally established the federal government’s right to create laws that would apply to Aboriginal peoples. With such legislative groundwork established, a case was soon after made to develop an educational strategy that would completely assimilate Aboriginal children.

The Dominion Lands Act encourages European settlement in the prairie provinces by giving 160 acres of land away to any settler who will build a homestead on the land and cultivate at least 40 acres.

The Constitution Act (also known as the British North America Act) creates the Dominion of Canada, which includes Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.

“This branch of the Indian service has ever been recognized as one of the most, if not perhaps the most, important feature of the extensive system which is operating towards the civilization of our native races, having its beginning in small things—the first step being the establishment of reserve day-schools of limited scope and influence, the first forward step was the founding of boarding-schools both on and off the reserves. The beneficent effect of these becoming at once apparent, an impetus was thus given to the movement in the direction of industrial training, which was at once entered upon the establishment of our earlier industrial institutions … until today the Dominion has had at its command a system which provides for its Indian wards a practical course of industrial training, fitting for useful citizenship the youth of a people who one generation past were practically unrestrained savages.” Dominion of Canada. Annual Report for the Department f Indian Affairs for the year ended 31st December 1896. p. 291. A.E. Forget, Indian Commissioner.

The federal government and certain Christian churches enter into a formal agreement to operate residential schools.

Cree language; and, no doubt, the introduction of some white boys, say one to every ten, would help greatly to make them speak in English, and thus become familiar with the language. With reference to the school for girls, I think this a necessity. The success with the few girls already under instruction is a guarantee of the success of the undertaking; and it is plain that to educate boys only, they would soon go back to old habits, if the girls are not taught to co-operate in house work. I do not think it possible that the girls I saw at the school, with their neat dresses, and tidy way of doing house work, could ever go back to the old habits of the Indian. These will be the future mothers; and it is most important to have them properly trained and educated.” Dominion of Canada. Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs for the year ended 31st December, 1886. P. 146. Alex McGibbon, Inspector of Indian Agencies and Reserves.

Allegations emerge of physical and sexual abuse at Rupert’s Land School in Selkirk, Manitoba.

First Nations and Métis, including Louis Riel, Gabriel Dumont, Poundmaker, and Big Bear, fight for the recognition of land and treaty rights in Saskatchewan. Riel and other leaders are hanged for treason. Poundmaker, Big Bear and others are imprisoned.

Lessons, however, did not just revolve around farming and housekeeping. In fact, some proved to be quite political. As part of their education at the Regina Industrial School, for example, Aboriginal students were taken to see the execution of Louis Riel. That day, children learned that the people who voiced support for Aboriginal rights put themselves in grave danger. The children would have to find acceptable heroes and role models from white culture.

Amendment to the Indian Act – traditional Indian ceremonies, such as potlatches and the Sun Dance, are prohibited.

Following recommendations made in the Davin Report, Sir John A. Macdonald authorizes creation of residential industrial schools in the Canadian West.

Amendment to the Indian Act: Aboriginal peoples can be removed from reserves located near or within towns of more than 8,000 inhabitants.

By 1905, Manitoba, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Alberta, and Saskatchewan had joined the Dominion of Canada, Newfoundland joins in 1949.

For the most part, government and church officials managed to ignore these opposing voices. However, the health reports from the schools could not be as easily dismissed. The ongoing outbreaks of tuberculosis at the schools were taking a toll on the students’ lives. This disease spread quickly through the poorly ventilated and overcrowded school dormitories, and the malnourished and physically weakened Aboriginal students easily succumbed to the infection. Thousands of residential school children died from tuberculosis and from the many other ailments they contracted at the schools.

The Regina Industrial School was supposed to create an environment where Indian children would be “civilized,” and where they would learn the language and the skills necessary to enter the Canadian workforce as tradespeople. Did it succeed? That depended on who you asked. Some people celebrated the school as “one of the most successful in the Canadian west.” Others, however, felt that maybe it was a little too successful.* Debates soon raged in the House of Commons, as the opposition criticized government spending on industrial schools. The Minister of the Department of Indian Affairs attempted to defend the government’s position, arguing that “It has never been the policy of the Department for the design of industrial schools to turn Indian pupils out to compete with whites.” However, continued political pressure eventually brought about a change to the schools’ original design: Industrial schools would now focus exclusively on agriculture. Aboriginal boys would become “handy all round farmers,” and Aboriginal girls would learn the skills to become “excellent housekeepers.” (Memo, Indian Affairs, 1904).

Before long, the government began to hear many serious and legitimate complaints from parents and native leaders: The teachers were under-qualified, with an emphasis on religious zeal. Religious instruction was divisive. And there were allegations of physical and sexual abuse. These concerns, however, were of no legal consequence. Under the Indian Act, all Aboriginal people were by legal definition wards of the state. School administrators were assigned guardianship, which meant they received full parental rights. The complaints continued. School administrators, teachers, Indian agents, and even some government bureaucrats started to express their concerns. All of them called for major reforms to the system.

Forty-five residential/industrial schools are operating in Canada.

Despite an aggressive campaign to increase the number of students, the government was determined to keep the operating costs of the schools at a minimum. The lack of sufficient funds resulted in poorly constructed buildings, insufficient food and clothing for the students, and inadequate programming.

Chief Medical Officer for Indian Affairs Peter Henderson Bryce reports that conditions in the schools are “dangerous to health.” In 1922 he self-published a complete report on these findings entitled, “A National Crime.”

Amendment to the Indian Act – Western Aboriginals must seek official permission before appearing in Aboriginal “costume” in any public dance, show, exhibition, stampede, or pageant.

Not everyone welcomed Dr. Bryce’s report, or indeed, the similar such findings* of others. His requests for additional funds to address some of the basic health concerns were denied. Parts of his incriminating report were suppressed by Duncan Campbell Scott, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, who then also terminated the position of Medical Inspector. Clearly, the health of Aboriginal school children was not going to be made a priority.

Students initially learned carpentry, blacksmithing, printing, animal husbandry, and other trades. However, instruction eventually degenerated to ensure that Native people, no longer competitive in these trades, would remain in the lowest socio-economic class of farmhands (instead of farmers), general labourers (instead of skilled tradespeople), and, for young women, domestic workers. The Industrial School Era came with a high cost to Survivors: the surrender of cultural identity, and later, off-reserve, the loss of Indian status. Decades later, a modified school system was established. These schools were situated off-reserve, where children lived for the school year or in some cases all year-round. Yet this was not an improvement over the Industrial School model, and the early years of the Residential School Era were plagued by abuse and neglect.

Once again, underfunding was the source of many problems in the schools. The government had devised a per capita funding formula in 1892 to try and control operating costs: payments were based on the needs of each individual school. But the rapid development of new schools, combined with competition between church groups for funding, soon made it impossible for the formula to work properly. School administrators competed for more students, regardless of the poor condition of the school buildings. As the funding continued to dwindle, everyone within the schools suffered. It became difficult for the schools to hire qualified teachers. The appalling poverty of the schools also produced impossible working conditions. Staff worked long hours for meager wages in unsanitary and overcrowded environments. Many of them took out their frustrations on the children.

The type of school that Aboriginal children attended depended on the time and place in which they lived. Prior to the “residential” school system, industrial schools existed both on and off-reserve, and were, for the most part, attended by children in residence. Few first-hand accounts from Survivors of this period exist, but evidence suggests that some Survivors had a positive school experience, and afterwards led successful lives in their trades. These schools emphasized religious instruction, and taught farming and skilled trades, so that their “graduates” could be productive in mainstream Canadian society to the extent possible, given the racism of the day.

Shirley I. Williams, Ojibwe, attended St. Joseph’s Residential School in Spanish, Ontario, at the age of 10. She is now Professor Emerita and Ojibwe Elder in the Department of Native Studies at Trent University, Peterborough. When ten-year-old Shirley Pheasant (Williams) entered the St. Joseph’s Boarding School at Spanish, Ontario, in 1949, she could only speak her Native language, Ojibwe. Shirley remembers what it was like when she first arrived: “When I saw [St. Joseph’s] it was grey. A brick building when it rains is dark and grey, you know. It’s an ugly day but the feeling was … of ugliness. [T]he gate opened and the bus went in, and I think when the gate closed … something happened to me, something locked, it is like my heart locked, because it could hear that…[the clink of gates] …the bus stopped and then the sister or the nun … she came in and she sounded very very cross, and I could just imagine what she was trying to say, because this is what my sisters told me, what she would probably say, so I had in my mind what she was trying to tell us, that we get off the bus [and] we go two by two … up the stairs … the stairs were, well it was four stories and no elevator and we had to walk up the stairs with our suitcases. …[at the] top of the stairs . . . you were asked your name … and this [is] another thing my mother prepared me for … so I was very proud to say yes that my name was Shirley Pheasant and then they gave you a number and so you went down and they give you another bundle with your chemise … your bloomers and your stocking[s] and you went to the next person … the last one you saw [was] the nun who looked into your hair to look for bugs.”

Amendment to the Indian Act – soliciting funds for Aboriginal legal claims without permission is made illegal.

In 1922, after he was forced to retire from federal service, Bryce published his report in its entirety, under the title: The Story of a National Crime: Being a Record of the Health Conditions of the Indians of Canada from 1904 to 1921.

Duncan Campbell Scott, Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs, makes residential school attendance compulsory for Indian children between the ages of 7 and 15.

This was the environment that became home for generations of Aboriginal children. Many would arrive as young as four or five years old, and there they would remain for years, sometimes never returning* to their families and communities for visits or vacations. Children weighed the risk of running away against the cost of staying at the schools. Many decided the risk was worth it. While some were successful, they were usually caught by the police and returned to the schools. Others died in the attempt.

The federal government begins to apply provincial curriculum standards to residential schools and to integrate Aboriginal students into regular schools.

Aboriginal children separated from parents, grandparents, and extended family – including siblings, who may have been at the same school – suffered from feelings of acute loneliness, spiritual emptiness, and a sense of abandonment by their families, a situation made worse as they struggled with the need to learn a new language, and the stress of living in an unsafe environment. The effects of abuse were profound. Some children died from severe beatings. Out of despair, others took their own lives. Still others died without ever seeing their parents again. Such were the “good living conditions” that officials claimed existed at the schools.

The children themselves were extremely vulnerable. Physically and psychologically compromised by the inadequate food, clothing, and shelter provided by the schools, students were susceptible to the constant outbreaks of influenza and tuberculosis. They were also subjected to corporal punishment that was sometimes so severe that they found themselves hospitalized. In addition, many children were sexually abused. Indeed, the lack of oversight combined with the low level of qualifications required to work at the schools, often attracting persons unsuited to work with children and, sadly, sexual predators.

The Supreme Court of Canada determines that Inuit are to be “classified” as Indian and that the departments that managed northern affairs would also manage Inuit affairs.

Elsie Paul, Survivor
Sechelt Residential School, British Colombia

“[I remember] kids never having enough to eat. I think back on those days and I wonder was it during the Depression. Was that why there was so little food? Was it because food was rationed at that time? I guess in my own mind I’m trying to justify or make excuses why we didn’t have enough food. There was plenty of food on the table of the people who looked after us. There was butter on that table. We had fat on our bread. That’s what they put on our bread, one slice of bread per meal. The spread that was on there was beef fat or pork fat. When you do your duty and go to clean up the table of the caregivers and you see a beautiful setting there and they have a good choice of food —
. . . Mostly [at home] we lived on game, deer meat, and a lot of seafood prepared traditionally. That was all I knew, my grandmother’s cooking. We had fried bread or oven bread, jam or dried fruits, dried meat, dried fish and clams. Those were all the foods I was familiar with. And to get [to school] and to have a dish of some sort of stew put in front of me that I was not familiar with at all — It must have been pork stew. I remember the rind being in the stew with the hair on it, with fur on it, and the child next to me was saying that you have to eat that food or else you’re going to be punished if you don’t. I think I blanked it out. I don’t know if I ate it.”

Beverly Albrecht, Survivor Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario “I was 7. I was the oldest. My brother was 6. My other sister was 5. The other brother was 4, and my younger sister was 3 … The only time I remember talking to my brothers is Sunday. We have a Sunday dinner. That’s the only time I remember talking to them. The boys sat on one side and the girls on the other. … Because they didn’t want us to get along with the other girls, they would have boxing matches to make us fight just so that we wouldn’t like the other girls, and also, too, because they thought they had so many rules, they thought if we fight with each other we’ll end up taking our anger, or whatever we have, out on the other girls. … I remember fighting with my sister. She’s 2 years younger than me, but we never beat each other. We just did it. … You don’t do it just because you want to. They did it because they wanted us to be angry and to beat up on somebody younger. My healing? I do journaling for myself, like I said, with my women’s circle, we make crafts such as moccasins, dream catchers, and sometimes we quilt and things like that.”    

Abraham Ruban, Grolier Hall, Inuvik

“That first night at the Residential School I had nightmares. In the nightmares I saw the face of this Nun and I had nightmares all through the night. I woke up in the morning and I had wet my bed from just being disoriented, scared, and all the other elements. She came out and all the other kids had already gone out and gotten dressed. She came out and saw me still sleeping and realized I had wet my bed. She dragged me out and laid her first beating on me.
My parents had brought me up basically to not take [abuse] from anyone. I started fighting back. She first started with slapping me in the face and dragging me out of bed and calling me a “espèce de cochon” which means dirty old pig. And she had never seen such a low life. So this was my first introduction to this woman. I fought back and the harder I fought the harder she hit. Then she started using her fists on me so I just backed off and we called it even.

That was the first of many. I realized then that this would be stock and trade for the next few years. I could see well into the future what my relationship with her would be like. And it didn’t stop. I would get the [living daylights] kicked out of me and I would just fight back.”

Major revisions are made to the Indian Act: women are allowed to participate in band democracy, prohibitions on traditional Aboriginal practices and ceremonies are removed.

Before long, Aboriginal communities began to experience the full effect of the dysfunction, and indeed devastation, caused by the residential school system. Generations of Survivors have been raised, from as young as four or five years old, in a “family” made up of government and church officials, and school staff. Far short of parental role models, teachers and school administrators used harsh disciplinary methods, and neither encouraged nor showed affection. The residential school system deprived Aboriginal children of their traditions, and of a safe and supportive home in which they were cherished. It produced generations of people who lacked essential interpersonal and relationship skills.

Many Survivors were not equipped with the skills to become loving partners and parents, and had difficulty expressing parental love; many did not know how to handle conflict in a constructive way. When these Survivors became spouses or parents, they did not always interact with others appropriately. The abuse and neglect that Survivors suffered at the schools often resurfaced in their own relationships, where the abused became the abuser. This perpetuated a cycle of violence within families, and produced generations of “broken children,” many of whom also went on to attend residential schools. As parents struggled with the trauma of their own residential school experiences, they remained powerless to prevent the same from being visited upon their own children when it was their time to attend residential school.

By the 1950s, it became obvious that the residential school program had failed to reach its goals: Aboriginal peoples had not been assimilated into the Canadian mainstream, and graduates were not succeeding in their vocations. The situation could no longer be ignored. A policy of integration was now proposed as the best way to proceed, and as the residential school curriculum was reformed to meet national standards, the schools were slowly replaced by day schools. These schools were deemed “the best hope of giving the Indians [and other Aboriginal Peoples] an equal chance with other Canadian citizens to improve their lot and to become fully self-respecting.” The churches, reluctant to relinquish the residential school program, shifted their focus to the care of orphans and children at risk of abuse and neglect.

Indian Affairs regional inspectors recommend abolition of residential schools.

Approximately 10,000 students are attending 60 schools across the country.

As the civil rights movement swept through North America in the 1960s, organizations seeking to empower Aboriginal Peoples emerged. The American Indian Movement in the U.S and National Indian Brotherhood in Canada agitated for social change and, along with other developments, signaled the beginning of what is often referred to as the healing movement. Amendments to the Indian Act removed prohibitions that had forced traditional ceremonies underground. And, with the guidance of Elders, Aboriginal teachings and cultural practices reemerged in communities where these were lost or difficult to practice. Many Aboriginal people sought out knowledge holders in other communities near and far to revive traditional spirituality, and to re-introduce healing.

Amendment to the Indian Act: Indians can vote without having to give up their Indian status.

The partnership between the government and churches ends, and the federal government takes over the Residential School System. Transfer of control of the schools to Indian bands begins.

As these community-based healing efforts began to grow, personal growth programs also began to gain popularity. Alcoholics Anonymous made an important contribution to the healing movement by providing a structured path for individual healing. Later in the early 1970s, federally funded programs that addressed Aboriginal addiction, like the National Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program (NNADAP), began working with Native communities. A grass root initiative, “The Four Worlds Elders Conference” of December 1982, brought together forty different tribal groups to discuss strategies to address Aboriginal addictions. And treatment centres, like the Round Lake Treatment Centre (Vernon, BC), incorporated Aboriginal concepts of healing in their addictions program. These and other initiatives brought a greater acceptance and sensitivity to the unique healing needs of Aboriginal peoples in Canada.

Later in that decade, mainstream perspectives on healthcare began to change, and this led to a movement that centred on health promotion and healthy communities. The Declaration of Alma-Ata in 1978 by the World Health Organization defined health as “not only the absence of disease” but also as control over those things which led to health, a view in harmony with traditional Aboriginal concepts of healing. Holistic approaches to health, which emphasize healthy lifestyles, relationships, and communities, together with personal growth programs and traditional spirituality and healing practices have all contributed to the efforts to heal the intergenerational impacts of Residential Schools.

Percy Ballantyne, Survivor
Birtle Indian Residential School

Culturally speaking, [First Nations] are a very kind People. I want people to understand that, to know that, who we really are, you know, not the way they perceive us to be. Because for too long we’ve been told what to do, how to act, when to say things, when to speak up, who you should be, you know. The time is here now to tell the truth, to really tell the truth and to tell society who we really are.

… We’re the People from the north in the medicine wheel. We sit in the north. That’s who we are. That’s the real identity part of us (speaking Native language). That’s who we are.

. . . Just keep on walking in life, like I was conditioned already with love, with care, with wise teachings from my Elders in the community. Those are the ones that really carried me through in life to be able to make the right choices in life, the right decisions.

. . . This is not our society. This is White society. This is not First Nations society. This is not our life. . . . Gang life is not our life. Wife-beating is not our life. All kinds of things that are happening, that’s not us. That’s not our life . . .
So I find different ways I can work and heal, work with other people.”

Roughly 1,200 children are enrolled in 12 residential schools across Canada.*Residential Schools as defined by the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA). This does not include the many schools that were not of the agreement.

The Constitution Act is amended and now recognizes and affirms the rights of “Indian, Inuit, and Métis peoples of Canada.”

Between 1986 and 1994, the United Church, the Catholic Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the Anglican Church, and the Presbyterian Church issue formal apologies for their participation in the Residential School System.

Escalating social problems in Aboriginal communities, and conflict between Aboriginal groups and the federal government in the mid 1990s brought greater attention and focus to the destructive legacy of the Residential School Experience. Aboriginal leaders also helped to begin a dialogue between Survivors, the federal government, and everyday Canadians. In 1991, for example, National Chief Phil Fontaine disclosed to the public the abuses he endured while attending Residential School. In this climate of disclosure and dialogue,  http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/sg/sgmm_e.html The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) was created.

Arthur Henry Plint, former supervisor of the Alberni Indian residential school pleads guilty to 16 counts of indecent assault against students, and is sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Gradually, the remaining residential schools closed down or were transferred to the control of Indian bands during the last decades of the twentieth century. The last band-run Indian residential school, Gordon Indian Residential School in Punnichy, Saskatchewan, closed in 1996.

The Aboriginal children who attended and lived through the residential school system are now known as Survivors, a term that tragically acknowledges the many children who did not survive the school experience. Approximately 80,000 Survivors are still alive today. Abused children are often unable to express their feelings about the abuse because they may internalize their anger, fear, grief, and guilt.

In response to RCAP’s five-volume report that revealed an overwhelming link between the social crisis in Aboriginal communities and the Residential School System, the government developed an “Agenda for Action with First Nations.” This agenda led to the creation of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation (AHF) as a means to fund community-based healing initiatives over a 10-year period. In turn, the AHF created the Legacy of Hope Foundation (LHF) in 2000. The mandate of the Legacy of Hope Foundation is to educate and raise awareness and understanding of the legacy of residential schools, including the effects and intergenerational impacts on First Nation, Inuit and Metis people, and to support the ongoing healing process of Residential School Survivors. Fulfilling this mandate helps to support reconciliation between generations of Aboriginal peoples, and between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians.

The federal government issues Gathering Strength: Canada’s Aboriginal Action Plan which is “designed to renew the relationship with Aboriginal people of Canada.” The Aboriginal Healing Foundation is established to manage a $350 million healing fund over ten years.

“Intergenerational Survivor” refers to any individual who has been affected by the intergenerational dysfunction created by the experience of attending residential school; this includes those who have been abused by persons who are Survivors or victims of survivors and, more generally, those who inhabit dysfunctional communities whose roots lie in the fracturing of family and community wrought by the generations of children who were separated from their families. In the early 1990s, an estimated 287,350 intergenerational survivors were living across Canada, both on- and off-reserves.

Phil Fontaine, later the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, speaks publicly about the abuse he suffered at residential school.

Formerly part of the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, meaning “our land” in Inuktitut, becomes Canada’s third and largest territory.

Intergenerational Survivors have been indirectly affected by the residential schools because they were raised by people who had been so badly abused – physically and emotionally – and these people were, at times, unable to parent their own children. In fact, the lack of parenting skills is one of the most profound outcomes of the residential school system. It is perhaps one of the most inevitable outcomes, too, because of the extremely negative social conditioning of residential school students.

“Intergenerational Impacts”* refer to “the effects of physical and sexual abuse that were passed on to the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Aboriginal people who attended the residential school system.”

For the past five hundred years, Aboriginal peoples have suffered historic trauma. Today, Aboriginal people are beginning to understand that many of their current social problems are deeply rooted in the trauma caused by the residential school experience. This unresolved historic trauma will continue to affect Aboriginal individuals and communities until it is fully addressed, psychologically, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

Basil Ambers, Survivor
St. Michaels School,

Alert Bay“I was [at the school] nine years apparently. I didn’t know. We didn’t know how long we were there. Nobody cared. We didn’t care about education. That wasn’t the point. Survival was the thing that we cared about and survival was the only thing that motivated us, all my friends. There’s only a little handful of us left. That’s all. Dozens committed suicide, drowned or drank themselves to death. Some went under with drugs.

…but you’ve got to heal. That’s number one. You’ve got to heal. And you’ve got to look at yourself. You’ve got to come to the conclusion that you’re not a bad guy or you’re not a bad woman . . . We need to get back to the roots of a lot of things.

One of the things I tried to promote in one of our [healing] meetings … was to get back the feeling of respect for our women that we were losing. We no longer respected our women. Quite often we mistreated them badly. We never got to that because of the hurt that people had.

. . .it bothers me when people come up to me and say, “You’ve got to learn how to live, man, you’ve got to learn to accept these things. It’s happened. It’s gone.” It hasn’t gone. The Residential Schools thing is the biggest factor that has shaken the Indian people down to their roots and it’s the thing that has changed our total look on history.”

AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine announces a class action lawsuit against the Government of Canada over the legacy of the residential schools.

The federal government, legal representatives of former students, the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit representatives, and churches sign the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement (IRSSA). The IRSSA is contentious to some, and does not represent Survivors of all schools.

As Survivors and advocate groups pressured the government to address Survivors’ concerns, a substantial number of class action lawsuits were initiated. After negotiation with key Aboriginal groups and representatives, the Government of Canada implemented the “Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement” in 2007. The agreement provided for restitution and redress through a number of financial initiatives and programs. Processes for the resolution of claims and for the reimbursement of legal expenses were established, and funds were allotted for healing and commemoration initiatives like those conducted on the “National Day of Reconciliation.” A Funding Allowance also endowed the Aboriginal Healing Foundation with $125 million for a five-year period. Programs included a “Common Experience Payment” program, a Commemoration Program, and an Advocacy and Public Information program. In addition, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was created.

As part of the IRSSA, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) is launched.

While Pope Benedict XVI expressed “sorrow” about the abuse of residential school students during a private meeting with Phil Fontaine, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, as of 2013, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops continues to refuse to issue a formal apology.

Viola Papequash, Survivor Gordon’s Residential School, Punnichy, Saskatchewan “I say the prayers with [youth] and I talk about Residential Schools with them. I don’t talk about all my experiences, but I do say that I have been to Residential School so maybe youth will understand. They are struggling with a lot of issues, the youth are, and one is identity and self-esteem and being proud of who they are. It hasn’t been passed on from their parents because of Residential School. So I see the younger generation struggling with that, not knowing who they are and not knowing how to be in the world, you know. . . . That’s our belief as First Nations that we don’t just think about ourselves. We have to think of the next generation and the ones yet to come. I’ll end with that. We have to think about the ones yet to come. They’re not here yet, but we have to prepare for them. And preparing means we’ve got to put down that hurt and that pain we carry now. We can’t let that be our life.”