Three generations of the Nepinak family were present Friday when Pope Francis apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s residential school system.
“I never thought I’d see that in my lifetime,” residential school survivor Frederick Nepinak told CTV News in Rome. “My wife and I got emotional there when he said that he’s very sorry.”
The traumatic legacy of residential schools is entrenched in their family history. Frederick and his wife Theresa Nepinak are both survivors. They were accompanied at the Vatican by their daughter-in-law Cindy Woodhouse, the Assembly of First Nation’s regional chief for Manitoba.
“My mom tells me really horrific stories, my dad has told me really horrific stories, and it’s hard to hear them,” Woodhouse told CTV News. “All different kinds of emotions you could feel in that room: anger, and people trying to come to grips, I think, with how our lives have been transformed over the years.”
Woodhouse’s eight-year-old son Kolt was also there for the emotional and historic moment Friday.
“I feel like it’s an important thing for him to witness, that someday when I’m gone from this that he remembers, and that all these young people remember so that this doesn’t happen to another child again,” Woodhouse said.
The apology came after a week of meetings between Pope Francis and First Nations, Inuit and Metis delegates. The Pope vowed Friday to visit Canada to deliver an in-person apology to residential school survivors, which could happen as soon as late July.
Beginning in the late 1800s, approximately 150,000 Indigenous children were separated from their families and forced to attend residential schools, which aimed to replace their languages and culture with English and Christian beliefs. Largely run by the Catholic Church, numerous cases of abuse and at least 4,100 deaths have been documented at former boarding schools, where thousands of confirmed and unmarked graves have been found. Canada’s last residential school closed in 1996.
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If you are a former residential school student in distress, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line at 1-866-925-4419, or the Indian Residential School Survivors Society toll free line at 1-800-721-0066.
Additional mental-health support and resources for Indigenous people are available here.
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