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'It's going to take a long time'
More than 100 people turn out to support healing for residential school survivors

Laura Busch
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, October 2, 2013

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
"I'm here to honour the lives of the children who attended residential school - not only the survivors, but also the children who never made it home," said Kiera Kolson as she walked down Franklin Avenue with a crowd of over 100 people on Monday.

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Elder Margaret Leishman feeds a fire with offerings from more than 100 participants in an Orange Shirt Day Monday as elder Feliz Lockhart and other bystanders look on. - Laura Busch/NNSL photo

The crowd of demonstrators had gathered to show solidarity with residential school survivors and to mark Orange Shirt Day - a national day of remembrance started by the Presbyterian Church in Canada. The march began at Somba K'e Park and ended near Sir John Franklin High School at the site of the now-demolished Akaitcho Hall dormitory, where a fire was fed with offerings by Dene elders Margaret Leishman and Felix Lockhart.

The purpose of the event was not to dwell on the wrongs of the past - though they are many - but to support reconciliation, said organizer Lawrence Nayally in the lead-up to the march.

"Reconciliation means that everybody involved needs to help one another in the healing journey for many of the survivors who are still with us today," he told Yellowknifer. "It was a goal of mine to raise that awareness, to show residential school survivors that, you know, we didn't hear about this 10 or 15 years ago, but now we know."

Many who attended voiced support for the high school Northern Studies program - a required course, which teaches students about residential schools.

"It is a Canadian issue, it is a Canadian challenge - it's not just aboriginal people," said Education, Culture and Employment Minister Jackson Lafferty at the old Akaitcho Hall site. "We want to share the history, we want to share the challenge. That's why we've initiated ... the residential school curriculum."

Lafferty lived at Akaitcho Hall and attended residential school for four years. He said this was his first time back on the grounds since 1988, and it brought back both happy and painful memories.

The Akaitcho Hall residence housed aboriginal students from outside of Yellowknife attending Sir John Franklin High School until it closed in 1994. It has been remembered by many as one of the better residential schools. However, students who attended still faced alienation and loneliness after being separated from their families.

Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus - whose parents lived in Yellowknife and so did not live in the residence - said he remembers being told he was not allowed to speak to the students from Akaitcho Hall.

The main objective of Monday's march was to promote reconciliation and healing.

"This walk is in recognition and it also gives us a sense that we know who is apologizing and we can forgive them and we can also move forward onto healing ourselves," said Roxane Landry, who attended residential school - as did her parents and her grandparents.

Louise Beaulieu was another residential school survivor who joined Monday's rally.

For her, reconciliation means "to come together and to forgive each other."

"It's going to take a long time, but at least I'm sober today and I recognize that I can go forward with my life and the pain can stay behind," she said.

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