DELINE/FORT FRANKLIN - A wave of inspiration washed over Deline at the beginning of the month, as more than a hundred delegates descended upon the community of 500 to listen to residential school survivors share their stories.

The Journey Home Mission, sponsored by the Dene Nation, took place in the community March 1 to 5 and featured guests from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Catholic and Anglican churches, and even a speaker, Robbie Waisman, who survived the Buchenwald Concentration Camp during the Holocaust during the Second World War.

In addition to the delegates, nearly 100 people came from surrounding communities in the Sahtu, although most Deline residents were out of town at the time, taking advantage of the winter road.

Some of most moving moments came when participants listened to their own friends and family members speak - that was true for Deline resident Michael Neyelle, who attended all five days of the conference.

"It was excellent," Neyelle said. "They should have had this a long time ago and they should have it again."

He said it helped to hear the experiences of others, particularly well-known radio announcer William Greenland and his brother, Charlie Neyelle, who led an elder's circle during the conference.

"It was really real and honest. Everything was helpful, everybody who spoke - everybody was real."

Deline resident Judy Bayha had only a few days notice before the conference to help organize billet accommodations, meals, traditional entertainment and other services for those coming to town for the conference, but she said it was worth it in the end.

"They had a Holocaust survivor here, and I guess some people, having heard his story, there's a possibility that they might want to get him back again just for the youth," she said.

Not many young people attended the conference, Bayha said, but a few of the local elders did benefit from it.

She said a large event like this is good for her community, especially since it was focused on healing.

"Most of these delegates that did come, it's their first time in Deline and the few people that I've spoken to from out of town, they loved Deline and they want to come back so that's good for the community," she said. "And for some, they haven't seen some of these people in years, so it was a good visit and (a way to) meet new friends at the same time."

"I think it went over well generally, considering the time factor and lack of resources."

Justice Murray Sinclair, chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, spent two days at the gathering with some other commission representatives, who took statements from nearly everyone in attendance for the commission's upcoming report.

"The stories of the survivors at the Deline gathering were similar to many of the stories that we've heard elsewhere," he said, explaining that many people emphasized the loneliness and isolation they felt at residential school, even when their families lived nearby.

"We also heard stories of children who were being placed in schools in the same communities where they had been born and ... they would tell us that sometimes they could see their parents going back and forth in the town or in the village and they weren't allowed to talk to them or acknowledge them, and they found that difficult."

The statements collected at the gathering will, with the consent of those who shared them, become part of the commission's research as the team travels across the country hearing about residential school experiences from other survivors.