Love of people, a frustration with the plodding pace of reconciliation and the need to hear the stories of the victims are the forces that drive two local people to be part of the Indian Residential School Truth and Reconciliation process.
Sechelt residents Rev. Janice Young of St. John's United Church and Bob Smith, past moderator of the United Church of Canada, both attended the reconciliation event in North Vancouver on Oct. 26. And while both expressed their praise for the way the day transpired, they also told of a longing to move the reconciliation into a more personal level.
The day, a public education initiative organized by the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, brought together about 300 people. There were powerful spiritual ceremonies during the day, including a traditional cedar bough cleansing to welcome participants. After speeches by special guests such as National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo of the Assembly of First Nations, a representative of the provincial government and the Truth and Reconciliation commissioners, Samaya Jardey outlined the history and impacts of the Indian Residential School.
In one of the most moving parts of the day, residential school survivor Louisa Smith conducted a cleansing ceremony. Smith had her daughter wash her mother's hands and face - several times over - to 'wash away the stigma, the shame, the disgrace, the dishonour inflicted upon them and which we then passed on to our loved ones.'
For Young, who calls the residential schools 'a dark page in all our histories,' it's not good enough to merely acknowledge the hurt and horror inflicted on generations of innocent children; now, she would like to be able bring healing to those in her community who desire it.
The reconciliation process, modeled on the aftermath of the apartheid policies of South Africa, places the onus on the aggrieved party. It is presumed to be driven not by the people who created the problem, but by the people who endured the wrongs. That philosophy makes it difficult for Young to reach out to those in our community who may want reconciliation.
'This [process] is so important - no one wants to miss the opportunity. We want to listen. We want to hear with respect. We want to do what we can to help. We have to bear witness to the painful stories. If not us, then who?' she said.
Young had her first experience with a residential school survivor about five years ago in Prince George. At the time, Young was the president of the B.C. Conference of the United Church. She was asked to represent the Church in an alternative dispute hearing.
'A man who had gone to a United Church residential school, now in his 70s, said 'I've been wanting to talk to you for a long time',' she remembered.
The two went into a hallway to talk.
'Why was I taken from my home when I was six years old?' the man asked. 'Why was I beaten for speaking the only language I knew? Why was I repeatedly physically and sexually abused? Why wasn't I allowed to go home when my mother died?'
'I am so sorry,' Young replied.
The meeting lasted six hours and changed both lives. The man told Young he felt a huge burden had been lifted off his shoulders and she came away feeling like she had borne witness to something sacred.
She feels it's important for the residential school advisors to be able to unburden themselves and that it's equally important for the rest of society to learn about the past and find ways to put reconciliation into action.
Smith echoes many of those feelings.
His experiences with the reconciliation process go back much further. In 1986, when he was the national moderator of the United Church, he gave an official apology to the First Nations people.
That apology was mainly for the colonial mentality of the Church in the past. It was a hard-fought decision to issue the apology. The debate in Sudbury, Ont. that resulted in the apology was not without its detractors.
Smith remembers vividly the night he went to a teepee to read the apology to about 100 people gathered in the structure. When he came out, there were about 600 or 700 people waiting.
From one of the crowd, he heard, 'Now what the hell are they going to do about it?'
By the 1990s, revelations were beginning to surface about the abuses leveled at the students in the schools. And soon the United Church was involved in a horrific case in Port Alberni where at least 50 children had been the victims of a pedophile. Soon after, the Church decided to establish a fund to compensate Native people. The money could be used to recover their language and for healing circles with healers from First Nations and others. The Healing Fund was to be used for anyone needing it, regardless of which church was liable for the damage done. The objective was to raise a million dollars.
'In 1994, a hurricane came [through the Americas], and the United Church in one month raised $1 million. It took us six years to raise the $1 million for the residential school victims,' he said. 'It's a hard sell in the Church. I would travel into communities and visit with the neighbouring First Nations. They would tell us 'they [the townspeople] are a bunch of racists, and we're treated like pariahs'.'
And while the event on Oct. 26 was in some ways very moving to Smith, his desire is for more opportunity for face-to-face interaction.
'Healing will happen person to person, disclosure to disclosure, confession by confession. They've got to know we're really sorry. Ultimately the white majority has to redress the actions of the past,' he said. 'It's very easy for nice church people to say, 'we're sorry'. It's much harder for us to pay extra taxes to redress the results of residential schools.'
