SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - In a historic act of contrition on behalf of Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has formally apologized to victims of the residential school system.

"The treatment of children in Indian residential schools is a sad chapter in our history," Harper said in the House of Commons on June 11, in a session attended by aboriginal leaders and residential school survivors from across Canada.

Brother and sister J.C. Catholique and Elizabeth Catholique stand outside Breynat Hall - a former residential school in Fort Smith - after listening to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's historic apology on June 11. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

"The Government of Canada sincerely apologizes and asks the forgiveness of the aboriginal peoples of this country for failing them so profoundly," Harper said. "We are sorry."

As Harper spoke in Ottawa, his words were being heard across the North.

In Fort Smith, brother and sister J.C. Catholique and Elizabeth Catholique watched the apology on a television at Breynat Hall, the former residential school they once attended.

"I felt kind of shocked, excited and emotional all mixed together," Elizabeth Catholique said of her reaction to the apology.

"I think this is what we needed to hear," she said. "Now we can move on to our destiny as aboriginal people."

The brother and sister, who are originally from Lutsel K'e and who both spent a decade or more in residential schools, felt the apology was sincere.

"For me, I think it was important it came from the heart," J.C. Catholique said. "That was what I was looking for."

However, he said there is still a lot of anger and hurt among former students for what he called the "shaming process" of not being allowed to speak their language or practise their culture.

As for what it was like to listen to the apology in Breynat Hall, which is now a college residence, J.C. Catholique said it was an emotional experience. "For me, it's like going full circle."

In Paulatuk, Anne Thrasher, another former residential school student, also felt the prime minister's apology was sincere and heartfelt.

"But the tears that rolled down my eyes were for the ones that aren't alive today," she said, saying some former students' lives ended in suicide or violence because of the deep wounds they suffered at residential school.

Thrasher, who spent eight years in residential school, recalled she was fluent in the Inuvialuit language when she was taken there at age six, but had to relearn it later in life.

"I'm still not fluent," she said.

Yellowknife's Tree of Peace Friendship Centre was the site of much emotion as people watched the broadcast from Ottawa.

Tissues were passed around the room as Harper and other government leaders spoke about the past horrors and subsequent shame that haunts some aboriginal people.

Those in attendance at the Tree of Peace sat quietly, some sobbing, through more than an hour of speeches from Ottawa.

After the broadcast, a survivor of residential schools, Charlie Tobac, performed a traditional prayer and spoke to the crowd.

Tobac recalled the shame he felt after living in a residential school and the hardships he faced afterwards.

"We needed support, but we had to live with it alone for a long time," he said.

Reaction to the apology was decidedly positive.

"I'm grateful this government have admitted that they made a mistake," said James Jenka, who attended a residential school in Alberta for five years. "These are just words. It's the actions that come that are most important as far as reconciliation."

"I was happy to hear the apology. It's been something I've been waiting for a long time," said Doreen Cleary, another residential school student.

In the legislative assembly on Wednesday, emotional MLAs reacted to the prime minister's apology.

Premier Floyd Roland pointed out the residential school system has affected most in the North and that more than half of current MLAs attended them.

"The prime minister's apology is a glimmer of hope for Northern students who passed through a dark part of Canadian history and finally marks the beginning of a period of healing and recovery," Roland said.

Kevin Menicoche, MLA for Nahendeh, said the apology was a long time coming.

"Today our aboriginal people have a reason to be hopeful," said Menicoche, who had trouble getting through his statement.

In his apology, Harper noted the federal government became involved in residential schools in the 1870s in joint ventures with several churches.

The two primary objectives were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture.

"These objectives were based on the assumption aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior or unequal," he said.

"Indeed, some sought, as it was infamously said, 'to kill the Indian in the child.' Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country."

The prime minister also said, while some students had positive experiences, those were overshadowed by tragic accounts of emotional, physical and sexual abuse.

In all, about 150,000 children were taken to 130 such schools across Canada.

They operated into the 1990s.

It is estimated about 80,000 of those students are still living.

Western Arctic MP Dennis Bevington said an estimated 10,000 aboriginal children in the NWT were ripped from their homes and forced into residential schools over the years.

Bevington said, although the abuse suffered will never be forgotten, he is grateful his constituents and aboriginal people all across the country can take some comfort in the apology.

"I hope this can serve as a first step in the healing process," the MP said.

But for some the apology comes too late.

For one Sahtu woman, who wished to remain anonymous, too much harm has been done for an apology or money to ever compensate aboriginals for the pain they suffered.

Calling News/North from her home, as the prime minister's speech played on a radio in the background, the woman spoke emotionally and candidly about the pain she felt being taken away from her family when she was a child.

She expressed outrage and wept while speaking of friends who have died from suicide and alcohol abuse, all unable to cope with traumas of the residential school legacy.

She also told of her inability to forge close relationships, her addiction to alcohol and her surprise that at 56-years-old she is still alive.

"It's too late for an apology," she said. "I will probably die of alcohol."

- with files from Cara Loverock, Herb Mathisen and Chris Puglia.