There was a moving presentation at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission national event in Saskatoon this morning.
The Quewezance family talked about how five generations of their family were devastated by the residential school experience.
Children from the family were removed from the home and sent to residential schools from 1900 until 1996.
Family spokesman Ted Quewezance described the schools as a form of genocide — and says his family is still paying the price today:
“And you know what? This continues today. Each week, back home in our community, there has been on average a death a week from suicide, violent death, prescription drugs. We seldom have a natural death in our community.”
Quewezance tearfully told a story of siblings who were strangers in their own families, and about how the emotional abuse has followed from one generation to the next:
“There is not one day or hour that goes by without reminders of our pain, of our abuse, of our losses, our loneliness, and abandonment”.
Todd Deiter attended the school in Lebret.
He told the commission he escaped from the school four times due to physical, sexual and emotial abuse that was done to him.
He says he felt guilty leaving because he still had brothers there.
The first three times he failed but on the fourth time, walking through the fields and woods, he finally got home:
“- and my Dad, my late Dad was home that time. He was a long-distance truck driver. He was the only one that believed me.”
Deiter says his Dad had also been abused when he attended the schools but could only speak about it after he’d had alcohol.
He believes if his father had received emotional support like he did he might still be alive today.
Myrna Whiteduck told the commission members of her family had attended seven different schools for a total of 125 years.
She feels the government continues to re-victimize aboriginal people through its underfunding of health and welfare programs for children on reserve.
The TRC gathering runs through until Sunday.