Left to right, Larissa Burnouf, Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) Communications; Eleanore Sunchild, Sunchild Law; and dancer Kevin Haywahe, of Carry the Kettle Nakoda Nation, shown at the Vatican. (Submitted photo/Anthony Linklater)

By Angela Brown

Truth and Reconciliation

Apology from Pope a start in reconciliation efforts says local advocate

Apr 11, 2022 | 6:12 PM

When Pope Francis apologized for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in residential schools when Indigenous delegations visited the Vatican earlier this month, it was a step forward, but more work needs to be done, a local advocate said.

“I want to say to you with all my heart: I am very sorry,” Francis was reported to have said during a final meeting with First Nations, Inuit and Métis delegates at the Vatican.

Eleanore Sunchild, a Battlefords area Indigenous lawyer of Thunderchild First Nation, and an advocate for residential school survivors, says “it was quite surprising” to hear the apology.

Sunchild attended the Vatican for the event with the Saskatchewan delegation, which was in the audience when the Pope apologized April 1. Sunchild attended as an advisor to the Chiefs present from Saskatchewan during the visit.

She noted hearing the Pope’s apology on behalf of the church does not resolve the past but it is a step forward.

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“I was very happy to be able to witness the apology because it was a historic moment,” she told battlefordsNOW. “And it’s a start. Of course the Catholic church has to do much more than just apologize, to begin to reconcile what happened in the Indian Residential School system. But it is a beginning.”

Sunchild, who has represented thousands of residential school survivors from across the country over the years, is also looking forward to seeing the Pope come to Canada to apologize on First Nation territory.

“The Pope is coming here in July, I think,” she said, adding that all indications are that he will come this year. “He will deliver hopefully a much more broader apology when he comes. The survivors deserve for him to come to our land and deliver a heartfelt apology, and not just the words: I am very sorry.”

She said she has no doubt the Pope will fulfill his promise to come to Indigenous lands in Canada and deliver an apology to all the survivors, “because that’s what they deserve.”

“Hopefully, that’s followed up by further action regarding disclosure of the records they have in their possession,” Sunchild said. “Hopefully, it entails efforts towards healing.”

She said there were so many cases of physical and sexual abuse in Indian Residential schools that the trauma continues to linger through intergenerational effects.

“We see the effects of the Indian Residential schools today in the trauma within First Nations communities, ranging from addiction to suicide, to the number of Indigenous people incarcerated,” Sunchild said.

She said that is all a result of the abuse and trauma that people suffered in the Indian Residential schools, particularly in many Catholic-run Indian Residential schools.

Sunchild said the church owes the survivors, to assist them with the healing from that legacy of sexual abuse within Indian Residential schools.

– With files from The Canadian Press

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow