Indigenous Canadians hope Pope Francis will apologize for the abuses in religious schools

For decades, the trauma remained in the indigenous community of Maskwacis. But some hope to close it during Pope Francis’ visit apologize for the role of the Catholic Church during a century of abuse in Canada.

the pontiff, arriving next Sunday in Canadawill stop at this community of 19,000 people, about 100 kilometers north of Edmonton, Alberta, on Monday to visit one of the church-run state boarding schools where indigenous children have been forcibly interned.

Many of those child abuse survivors still live in cities like Maskwacis, where indigenous people from four different nations reside.

“Some will feel things that will help them move forward in life”, said Randy Ermineskin, head of the Maskwacis Crie community, From the late 19th century until the 1990s, about 150,000 Inuit, Mestizo or First Peoples (Dene, Mohawk, Ojibway, Crie, Algonquin, etc.) were forcibly admitted 139 schools across the country boarding. Cut off from their families, their language and their culture, they were often abused of all kinds.

“The pope’s apologies will have great consequences” said Wilton Littlechild, who has spent 14 years in many of these centers.

To heal wounds

These asylums mark an essential stage, esteems this lawyer who has always fought in favor of dialogue between Canadians and the indigenous peoples of the country.

“After the apology, people can start to heal their wounds and come to the conclusion – at least for some – that finally there is some justice, and then we can talk about reconciliationLittlechild, 78, told AFP.

Even today the indigenous population, which represents almost 5% of the Canadian one, lives in poverty while racism resists.

Relations between the Canadian state and indigenous peoples, known as “First Nations”, continue to be governed by an 1876 law that created hundreds of indigenous reserves in the country.

At Maskwacis, a plaque commemorates the Ermineskin College, which opened in 1894 and is now destroyed. Before closing in 1976, it was one of 139 largest state schools run by the Catholic Church in all of Canada, which were forced to attend about 150,000 indigenous, Inuit and Métis children. as part of a failed assimilation policy.

The students they were cut off from their families, their language and their culture. Many have experienced physical and sexual abuse by teachers and principals. Thousands of people are believed to have died from disease, neglect and malnutrition.

Canada has faced this past for years. But the discovery in recent months of the remains of hundreds of indigenous children buried in anonymous graves in the places of the schools they have marked in the national conscience the reality of how the State and the Catholic Church have made them suffer.

Around the Maskwacis school, in the deserted streets of a residential complex, stray dogs wander among abandoned tricycles and mattresses on the pavements, in front of houses riddled with graffiti or burned.

“We need a blessing, especially for young people. It’s hard here … There are many gangs and drugssays Connie Roan, who lives near one of the houses with the charred roofs.

alcohol and drugs

In front of her garden, this 67-year-old grandmother hopes the pope “will bring about a change in the community”.

Alcoholism and high suicide rates punish those aboriginal communities traumatized by boarding schools and assimilation policy, which has been recognized as a “cultural genocide” by the Canadian state.

“I hope and pray that the pope will come, because everyone needs him. Not just us, but all of Canada,” said Gilda Soosay, a 50-year-old Catholic who works for young people in an addiction center in the area.

Head of the parish and with a rosary around his neck, Soosay says this visit is a “miracle” which “will help heal people”.

In a park, 22-year-old Seanna Fryingpan is “excited” by this “once in a lifetime” visit.

However, for this young mother, the “recognition” of the responsibility of the Church, “It won’t change what happened.”

Brian Lee, 68, goes further. He says that in this system he learned “to hate his own people” and that they told him that his “language was that of the devil”. you would like francis supporting the learning of languages ​​that are disappearing slowly.

“I believe that if everyone, from children to the elderly, spoke our language again, our community would be better off,” he reflects.

AFP agency

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