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Part 1:<I thought, what made him change his mind?
What made him make that apology? Why did it take so long?> Flora
says.>....
Part
2:
<Pope calls treatment of Indigenous in
Canada schools 'genocide'....>
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Part 3: <[The apology] fell short,....>
and
Francis has apologized personally and on behalf of <many>
individual bad actors, but not for the Church as a whole.
....> |
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Part 4: <Apologies for the role that the
Roman Catholic Church, as an institution, played in the
mistreatment on the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical and
sexual abuse that Indigenous children suffered in residential
schools run by the church,not enough> Trudeau said....
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Part 5: <...the pope said the Church
was asking <burning questions... on its difficult and demanding
journey of healing and reconciliation.>... |
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Part 6: <You never invite a wolf into your
den,> Chantalle said frankly, during a telephone interview with
Al Jazeera days before the pope’s arrival. <Like, you don't
bring somebody here that hasn't fully understood what has gone
on for all these years. I don't accept that he's coming to my
home. It’s not something I agree with.> .... |
Part 7: <Part of me is
rejoiced, part of me is sad, part of me is numb. But I'm glad I
lived long enough to have witnessed this apology,> Korkmaz said
during a news conference. <But like I said, I want more because
50 years is too long to wait for an apology.>... |
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Part 8: RoseAnne
Archibald, national chief for the Assembly of First Nations, who
also greeted the pope, criticised the <unilateral> organisation
of the trip and the <archaic> nature of the church, which has no
women in leadership positions. <We don't feel that it has been
about survivors>.... |
Part 9: Eastern Gate Windspeaking Woman, a
survivor who had travelled more than 500km (311 miles) from New
Brunswick, told me she felt like a <Christmas ornament> and was
not sure she belonged there. <It's not about the survivors,> she
said. <I felt we were pushed aside, like we didn't matter.
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CLICK HERE ON HOW TO READ THE BELOW (updated July
31 2022)
When one hurts or kills a child
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
and: My mother (1931-1997) always said to me <Mi
figlio, non esistono notizie <vecchie> perche puoi imparare qualcosa da
qualsiasi notizia.> Translated: <My son, there is no such thing as so
called 'old' news because you can learn something from any news.>
Gianna d'Artali
Al Jazeera
8 Aug 2022
<<REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK
Features|Indigenous Rights
Witnessing Pope Francis's apology for abuses against my people
Indigenous journalist Brandi Morin reflects on the papal apology tour in
Canada – and what ‘sorry’ means to survivors.
By Brandi Morin
<<Warning: The story below contains details about abuse in residential
schools that may be upsetting. Canada’s National Indian Residential
School Crisis Line is available 24 hours a day on 1-866-925-4419.
Maskwacis, Canada – My eyes were drawn to the thousands of people
walking through the fields in Maskwacis, Alberta. It was a momentous
occasion; within an hour, Pope Francis would arrive to deliver a
long-awaited apology to the victims of Canada's residential schools. It
was the morning of July 25 and these Indigenous people were making their
way to the main pow wow arbour at the reser-vation of the Ermineskin
Cree, one of four Indigenous nations that make up the community, about
100km (62 miles) south of Alberta's capital city of Edmonton. As I
watched them, I broke down and cried. After documenting the stories of
countless survivors of the residen-tial schools in my work as an
Indigenous journalist and travelling to Rome where the pope first
apologised on April 1, I was finally about to witness an admission of
the evils the Catholic Church had inflicted upon Indigenous children on
their own native lands. I am from the Michel First Nation, a band of
Cree and Iroquois people who were displaced from our reserve west of
Edmonton. My beloved <Kohkum> (grandmother in Cree) was a survivor of
the notorious residential schools and I have carried her pain throughout
my lifetime. The residential schools ripped families apart, forced
assimilation and committed horrifying abuses against generations of
Indigenous children. These evils were revealed for all the world to see
in 2021, with the discovery of the unmarked graves of hundreds of
Indigenous children who never made it home. The Catholic Church ran 60
percent of Canada's 139 residential schools. The graves, which are still
being discovered across the country, galvanised the Church to finally
res-pond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s call for the
pontiff to apologise for the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical
and sexual abuse of Indigenous, Inuit and Metis (mixed Indigenous and
non-Indigenous) children in the schools.
'I am deeply sorry'
As helicopters and drones flew overhead and police and security officers
flanked those gathered, the frail and wheelchair-bound pope arrived. He
said a prayer at the Ermineskin cemetery before being wheeled down a
newly paved road to a large field where three teepees stood alongside
photos of the Ermineskin Indian Residential School that had once stood
on the site. Standing close to him during this powerful moment of
remembrance, regret and silent prayer, I searched his face for the deep
sorrow he proclaimed to feel. His features registered pain as he
<begged> for forgiveness. Then the procession to the pow wow arbour
continued with the pontiff accom-panied by chiefs from the four nations
of the Maskwacis. Sitting on a raised stage, he spoke the words the
survivors had been waiting for: <I am deeply sorry>. The response from
the survivors was a sigh of relief, followed by tears and hugs. Wilton
Littlechild, a former Truth and Reconciliation commissioner and
Ermineskin Indian Residential School survivor, who has advocated for an
apology for more than 20 years, crowned Pope Francis with a
white-feathered headdress that once belonged to his grandfather. Along
with cheers from the crowd, there were gasps of disbelief that such an
honour – normally reser-ved for high leadership and ceremonial purposes
– had been besto-wed upon the pope. But Littlechild said he had made the
decision along with local elders, to help seal the reconciliatory nature
of the visit. <Many survivors, about 7,000 of them I had spoken with
during my time as commissioner told me all they wanted to hear was: 'I
am sorry,' on our own lands,> Littlefield told me. <And when [the pope]
responded, he told me, 'I was ashamed, I was deeply moved and from the
bottom of my heart I am very sorry'.>
An unplanned appearance by Si Phi Ko, a Cree mother who had travelled to
Maskwacis from Treaty 1 territory in Winnipeg, followed. Dressed in a
white buckskin dress and a crown decorated with colourful beading, Si
Phi Ko stepped forward just below where the pope stood. Then, raising
her fist high in the air, she sang in her own language so that even
those of us who did not understand the words recognised the message –
her voice strong, her face devastated, she sang the anguish of lost
generations.
....
Eastern Gate Windspeaking Woman, a survivor who had travelled more than
500km (311 miles) from New Brunswick, told me she felt like a <Christmas
ornament> and was not sure she belonged there. <It's not about the
survivors,> she said. <I felt we were pushed aside, like we didn't
matter.>
....
I left the event early.
....
But just because the apology tour is over it does not mean the road to
reckoning and reparations is. We have a long way to go on this journey
with the Church and with governmental powers and institutions in Canada.
We must keep the momentum of the broken hearts of all who were affected
by the unmarked graves and the truths of the colonial harms that took
place. We must use it as fuel to create a new and just way forward to
ensure no children or families will ever have to experience this
nightmare again.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2022/8/8/witnessing-pope-franciss-apology-for-abuses-against-my-people
Note from Gino d'Artali: Brandi Morin left the event but cotinued
following the 'tour'.
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