Pope Francis has apologized for the Catholic Church's role in running Canadian residential schools for Indigenous children.

The call from many Indigenous people in the country is now for everyday citizens to do more for reconciliation with communities and people.

LEARN AND UNDERSTAND

"I think that the most important thing for Canadians and Quebecers is to remember is residential schools is not a foregone history," said Cree Chairperson and Grand Chief Mandy Gull-Masty, who was part of the delegation that met with the Pope on Thursday.

She said she found the Pope's apology genuine and that it is where the "healing journey will begin."

Gull-Masty said the first step to reconciliation is to become aware of what residential schools are and the effects that they 

"Really trying to understand and hearing and learning from a survivor's direct story is an act of reconciliation for me," she said. "Though dark and challenging and hard to hear, that first step in acknowledging it is a big part of reconciliation."

Pope Francis asked for the forgiveness of Indigenous delegates who were at the Vatican and the "deplorable conduct" of members of the church.

"I want to say to you with all my heart: I am very sorry," Francis said during the final meeting with delegates.

"And I join my brothers, the Canadian bishops in asking your pardon."

UNDERSTANDING MULTI-GENERATIONAL TRAUMA

Chisasibi Cree Nation Chief Daisy House lives in the community where the first two residential schools (in French and English) in Quebec were located: the Fort George residential schools.

"It's learning and understanding," said House. "Even just coming to visit the communities all across Canada, understanding, having friends and sharing stories, listening to music, reading up on it, there's so much out there... Just educating oneself on the atrocities, the history and how do we move forward from it and asking people how they can move forward from it."

House pointed out that even those who did not attend the schools directly are multi-generational survivors and feel the effects.

"You see it in your community: the inter-generational trauma, the impact of the residential schools have had on our people and continues to have on our people," said House. "For non-Indigenous people to understand how you could take away a kid from their parents. Some of them lost their kids for six to 10 years and only saw them for a brief time in the summertime."

House said some children were taken from their parents as young as two years old. 

"Others will say they were lucky they only left at eight! Can you imagine somebody saying, they were lucky to leave at eight?!" said House. "I cannot imagine sending my son away at eight years old. I had a hard time when he was 17 years old to leave for college 15 hours away, so I cannot imagine a four-year-old, a six-year-old who only spoke Cree and not allowed to speak with their siblings or converse on the playground with their brother or sister."

NOT ANCIENT HISTORY

Residential schools, Gull-Masty said, are not ancient history. Though the schools began appearing in the 1880s, Kivalliq Hall in Rankin Inlet was the final one to close in 1996.

"This is something that occurred recently," she added. "In our community we have many survivors that attended schools in the community and were not able to be with their families are still heavily impacted."

Gull-Masty gave the Montreal Canadiens' recent Indigenous night as an example of what can be done by those not in political or spiritual positions of authority.

"Reconciliation is an effort that everyone needs to participate in, and there are so many beautiful opportunities and examples of what that means," she said.