‘Triggering’: Pope’s departure stirs strong emotions for Indigenous residential school survivors
Posted Jul 29, 2022 6:07 pm.
Last Updated Jul 29, 2022 7:38 pm.
As the Pope’s trip to Canada winds down, Indigenous Peoples across the country are left dealing with the multitude of emotions his visit brought on, emotions that vary between each person and their experiences.
“There’s a wide range of emotions coming from all sorts, and as someone who doesn’t identify as Catholic, someone’s whose kind of watched how this religion has hurt my family, I just wanna see our Elders happy, they deserve it,” said Michelle Robinson, Sahtu Dene Activist and podcast host of Native Calgarian.
“After everything that they went through, all of our Elders deserve happiness and joy and healing,” said Robinson.
An apology delivered by the head of the Catholic Church was spoken on land which was stolen from Indigenous people and brings traumatic memories to the surface for survivors of the residential school system, their families, and friends.
Calls to Canada’s Indian residential school crisis line grew significantly in the weeks before, and during the visit from the pope, from all corners of the country.
Indigenous Services Canada told CityNews they saw up to 130 per cent more calls per day.
“Callers to the crisis lines are expressing a range of different emotions. For some, the Pope’s visit and apology may be healing and for others, it may be triggering.
“Discussions about the harmful legacy of residential schools are important and can also be difficult for many.”
The crisis line increased the number of counsellors providing support saying almost all calls are answered within five minutes.
“There are so many strong Catholics because it was beat[en] into them, forced upon them, and so you have some Indigenous folks who are quite happy, and then you have folks like me that aren’t Catholic that know the gravity of what this church has done to our people and to these lands.”
Read More:
-
Pope to hold meetings with Indigenous groups as his six-day tour comes to an end
-
Indigenous healing garden planted at Alberta’s Children Hospital
-
Pope Francis leads reconciliation mass at Quebec pilgrimage site following second apology
Robinson says non-Indigenous Canadians need to recognize that Indigenous Peoples have been dealing with an extreme range of emotions during the papal visit. And they need to take extra steps to recognize their place in reconciliation.
“At the end of the day, it’s not Indigenous education, it’s Canadian’s history of oppression against Indigenous people. It literally is your own history that you need to learn.”
“I’m sad it took 215 graves for Canadians to start to understand the gravity of this.”
As the granddaughter of the niece of residential school survivors, Robinson points out this was a long-time coming.
“But that’s what it took. And just over a year later we finally have the Pope doing the work he should have done in 2015. I have so many mixed emotions from what I’m seeing.”
