09/30/2026
A few years ago a friend of mine introduced me to his parents. The family is Indigenous, Cree Nation. The father and I became friends and while visiting one day, he invited me to walk with him. Over the course of the day, moving through forest and sitting by streams, he shared his life story. Growing up with his family until government officials came and took him and his sister away to a residential school. There he was stripped of his identity, his language, his spirituality, no family contact. Forced to speak English, attend services if a religion that made no sense. He was beaten, sexually abused and r***d. He shared the entire experience with me, the first time he ever told it all. Eventually he left the school and returned to his lands, his sister did not. She died at another school she had been sent to. I am honoured to have been picked to hear this first hand horror story. Even as I write this years later I can feel all the emotions I experienced the first time. Including the anger and intense shame that our country Canada štried to eliminate the original peopleās of this land under the guise of education and religion. Truth and Reconciliation is the least we can do!!
