Reconciliation has begun, participants in residential schools conference say
EDMONTON – It wasn’t your average academic conference. When about 450 students from The King’s University College in Edmonton attended their school’s interdisciplinary conference, “Truth and Reconciliation: Healing the Legacy of Residential Schools,†on Jan. 21 and 22, they got a lot more than textbook lectures about history.
Survivors came to meet the students and talk with them about the abuse and losses they suffered at the schools. Church leaders spoke about their churches’ roles and responsibility running the schools and in the great harm done to native people. There was drumming, singing, praying and dancing, as well as anger, apologies, tears and hope. And according to some of the survivors and other participants, maybe there was even the beginning of reconciliation itself.
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