Indigenous Alberta

“It has a very deep impact on how you raise your children. We were never taught affection, we were never taught to say I love you, we were never told by anybody that we were loved. It was all, every day, degrading comments. No matter what we did there was always something wrong with us, and that has deeply affected Residential School survivors.” 

“I couldn’t get out of beds for days. I was crying all day,” Taypotat said. “I’m a mom and my daughter is eight. I couldn’t imagine sending her when she is four, the policemen coming and forcing me to give her up to go to these schools. It’s a nightmare— In the core of my soul it hurts.”

“I want the young people to change, to become one of the RCMP. That’s my dream.”

The MNC has been embroiled in infighting for the past several years over MNO’s membership which MNC insists includes Métis that do not fit the MNC definition.

Crowfoot said he expects scans, excavations, research and other associated work to continue over a long term due to the scale of the project and amount of land that will have to be looked at.

The funding announced today brings the province’s commitment to support Indigenous-led efforts in mental health care to nearly $8 million.

“It’s entirely their Nation— These illustrations are all from the Nation, so is the photography, the stories and the knowledge,” Shyba said. “It’s a cultural jewel.”

“With this support, we can begin to find a way forward, so that our community has an opportunity to find hope and healing,” Young said. “It is a sad truth that the individual and communal harm that occurred in these schools affects Indigenous families and communities today through direct and intergenerational trauma.”

“It was for the support and acknowledgment of our Residential School survivors and to honour our ancestors who didn’t make it home,” Holloway said. “We’ve been silenced for too long.”

“We still have to move forward— We have to continue this work,” Snow said.