Inuvik (July 14/06) - According to Stephen Kakfwi, the best way to deal with emotions is to share them with others.

Kakfwi, who was born in Fort Good Hope, was once quiet about his experiences in residential schools as a young boy.

Now, 46 years later, he stands tall in front of other people affected by the schools and tells them a message of strength.

Stephen Kakfwi was in Inuvik this week attending the residential school reunion. He spoke to the group about his experiences and what he has learned as a result. - Dez Loreen/NNSL photo

"I'm here to talk to those people about that period in my life and the impacts it had on me," said the former NWT premier.

It was in 1960, when he was only nine years old, that Kakfwi first saw Grollier Hall.

"My family was sent to a hospital and I became homeless overnight," he said.

For the first six months, he was under the care of a nun at the Inuvik facility.

"I was a real spirited kid who was never disciplined before my time at Grollier," he said. "It was very painful being far away from my family."

Kakfwi recalls the nun and her vicious methods of teaching him how to behave.

"She decided that I needed to be beaten into submission," he said.

Even though it sometimes hurts him to talk about the years spent at the school, Kakfwi knows it is part of the healing he must go through.

That lesson did not come easy to him though, and he battled through his pain for years before finally letting them go in public.

"I spend my time alone, I am a loner, and always have been. I used to think it was my problem and I had to deal with it alone," he said.

"If people asked me what I remembered about the years at those schools, I would blank it out and tell them I forgot."

It was in high school that Kakfwi turned to poetry, and songwriting.

"I would write poems about what I felt and what had happened," he said.

When the time finally came for him to share his experiences with others, Kakfwi realized that it was helpful to himself and others.

"I wrote a poem, called 'In the halls and walls of my mind' it was about my time in Grollier and the things that were really floating around in my mind," explained Kakfwi.

Ten years ago, Kakfwi picked up a guitar and started to sing about other things, like people he knew growing up and things he enjoyed.

"I wrote songs about the people I respected, like Lazarus Sittichinli of Aklavik," said Kakfwi.

Now he spread his word of strength and prosperity to those who want to lend an ear.

"It's no good to go through life minimizing and denying your feelings. I know that now."