Battleford Mayor Ames Leslie (left) and North Battleford Mayor Kelli Hawtin (right) receive blankets after speaking at the conference (Lane Hoffart/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Lane Hoffart

Honouring the Past, Healing for the Future

First Nations healing conference underway in North Battleford

Sep 3, 2025 | 5:00 PM

It’s a chance for people of all walks of life to come together in the spirit of Truth and Reconciliation.

The Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs (BATC) and Acahkos Awasisak-Star Children are hosting a two-day conference at the Western Development Museum in North Battleford. The conference, titled “Honouring the Past, Healing for our Future”, will host a variety of guest speakers, including the mayors of both Battleford and North Battleford, Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan Bernadette McIntyre, and Indigenous public speakers.

The purpose of the conference is to gather Indigenous people together to tell stories to heal the pain and trauma, both direct and generational, that was caused by residential schools.

BATC Indian Residential School (IRS) Manager Norma Pewapisconias said that she is happy to see multiple generations at the conference, as that ensures the important stories of a dark time in Indigenous history will be passed on to the next generation.

“There’s a lot of young people here, so I’m grateful that they came. There are students out from Mosquito, I believe, and just to learn about the Indian Residential School era, so that it’s not forgotten, that’s part of our aim here.” Pewapisconias added, “It’s hard, it’s tough for students, you know, survivors that have been there. But on the other hand, the younger kids need to know about it, and they need to know what happened. They need to know the truth.”

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Events like the conference have given Indigenous youth a chance to learn about and celebrate their culture after generations of repression. Pewapisconias said it makes her happy to see the return of traditions that were once almost lost.

“It’s empowerment, they wear the outfits, they do the dances, they’re speaking their language. That whole cultural resurgence is for confidence, for identity, for our future… colonization took that pride away from us because we were treated different because we’re Aboriginal. So now with this resurgence, they have an opportunity to be proud of who they are, where they came from.”

While there is still much work to be done in reconciliation and no actions will completely undo the generations of hurt and trauma caused by residential schools, Pewapisconias said that communication and understanding goes a long way in creating a strong relationship between cultures.

“Reconciliation takes being open minded on both sides, non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal because there’s a lot of mistrust, there’s a lot of anger. It just takes the risk to meet somebody, start talking to them and telling them about the culture.”

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Lane.hoffart@pattisonmedia.com