'The path to healing': Cree leader to meet Pope in residential school talks next week

Cree Nation Grand Chief Mandy Gull-Masty is well aware of the scars left behind by Canada’s residential schooling system.

Her mother and grandmother bear those scars, as do her aunts and uncles.

Their stories — and the stories of countless other Indigenous survivors — will be at the front of her mind when she meets with Pope Francis in Rome on Thursday.

Gull-Masty is part of an Indigenous delegation scheduled to speak with the head of the Catholic Church next week about residential schools and their harrowing legacy.

The former deputy chief of Waswanipi, Que., Gull-Masty was elected Cree Nation Grand Chief in 2021.

She says a major goal of the meeting is to help survivors move forward.

“[It’s about] the journey towards helping residential school survivors and intergenerational survivors with the path to healing, and how this can be achieved with both groups working together,” Gull-Masty said in an interview with CTV News.

One way the Pope can help achieve this, the delegation says, is by coming to Canada and apologizing to those affected.

The delegation also plans to encourage the creation of a “healing fund” for survivors — and what that healing process looks like will vary from one community to the next.

“The Catholic Church really has to look at tailoring the solutions in this reconciliation program individually to each nation,” said Gull-Masty.

Gull-Masty will depart for Vatican City on Saturday night.

READ MORE: 'Reconciliation was possible:' Indigenous priest reconciles faith with identity

UNMARKED GRAVES ‘A TURNING POINT’

The delegation will also speak to the discovery of numerous unmarked graves and the repatriation of bodies to their original communities.

In May of 2021, the remains of 215 children were discovered at the site of a former residential school site in Kamloops B.C. The discovery spurred a string of similar revelations across the nation with new investigations into previously unrecorded burial sites.

“The discovery of unmarked graves in Kamloops was a pivotal moment in Canadian history, and I think that there’s a lot of work to be done to address the truths of these kinds of incidents,” said Gull-Masty.

The graves illustrate how, for many Indigenous families, the deaths of their children were marked more by questions than answers.

Gull-Masty recalls speaking with one man who was eager to attend residential school as a child because he wanted to be with his older brother. But, when he arrived, he was informed that his brother had passed away.

“This family, for many years, were not able to find information on the location of the grave,” she said. “When they did see the location of the grave, there [were] a lot of questions whether or not it was actually a grave. There was no funeral held, there was no reasoning provided as to why this young boy lost his life.”

“This is an example of one of the stories that Indigenous families carry.”

READ MORE: 169 'potential graves' found at former northern Alberta residential school

‘NOT A FAR-GONE HISTORY’

Part of the reason this meeting with the Pope is so important, says Gull-Masty, is because the trauma of residential schools is carried through the generations.

“I think for me the biggest impact was really the loss of culture and the loss of language,” she said. “I had to really work hard as an adult to regain my Cree [language], with the support of my family.”

The last residential school closed in the 1990s. For many, the wounds are still fresh.

“This is not a far-gone history. This is something that occurred recently.”

Gully-Masty hopes Pope Francis will do his best to understand the extent of this reality.

“It is not going to be a simple solution,” she said. “I really hope that the Catholic Church comes to the table with an understanding that this is a process that will be multiple steps, and will require a great deal of sensitivity to not only address each individual, each Nation, each student who attended each school, but also to have a greater awareness of [how] their example can really transcend.”

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If you attended residential school, or have been affected by the residential school system, and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419

Additional mental-health support and resources for Indigenous people are available here.