A picture taken of Canada's Indigenous cultural delegation outside the Vatican. (Facebook/ Kevin Seesequasis)

By Nigel Maxwell

Apology reaction

Apology from Pope draws mixed local reaction

Apr 1, 2022 | 2:00 PM

Hours after an apology from Pope Francis to former residential school students, and a promise to come to Canada to deliver a similar message, his words are still sinking in for at least two concerned Saskatchewan residents.

Kevin Seesequasis, a community development officer at Beardy’s and Okemasis Cree Nation is part of a Canadian cultural delegation in Rome, helping lift the spirits of the Indigenous leaders attending meetings and provide them with some semblance of home.

While he was not there in-person for the apology, Seesequasis was able to watch it from outside the Vatican. He told paNOW he believes the Pope was sincere and has every intention of coming to Canada and delivering an apology.

“He said specifically on native land and I think he’s referencing the national anthem of Canada but more importantly the symbolism and importance of delivering that apology to our people and our communities,” he said, adding delegates he spoke to leaving the Vatican, also relayed to him similar feelings that the Pope’s words were genuine.

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The delegation, comprised over nearly a dozen people from various geographical areas of Canada, is part of the larger Indigenous tourism association of Canada and was asked by the Assembly of First Nations to come to Rome. Seesequasis said the response from both the local community and local media has been great.

“There’s a lot of curiosity and a lot of people still don’t really have a thorough understanding or even a grasp of Indigenous culture in Canada so it’s been uplifting to be able to share those stories of what culture is like in Canada,” he said.

Last year Patricia Ballantyne walked from a former residential school site in Prince Albert to the steps of the parliament building in Ottawa, as a way to raise awareness for former residential school survivors. She told paNOW the Pope’s apology does not change anything.

“There is really nothing the church can do or say to bring back the First Nations culture or to bring back the loss that I felt,” she said.

Ballantyne’s walk last summer was inspired in part by a tragic story from B.C. where the bodies of 215 children were found in an unmarked grave. Ballantyne herself spent nearly 10 years at a residential school and to do this day remains on a path of healing.

“Their apologies won’t bring my family back together; they wont bring my religion, my language or anything we lost because of the residential schools,” she said.

Ballantyne added it’s not the responsibility of the church to apologize to her or to the children she went to residential school with, explaining that between 1970 to 1988, it was not the church that ran the schools, but rather the tribal councils.

“I do not blame the churches for that because [the tribal councils] had it in their hands and could have done a better job at securing and taking care of their own people and their own children,” she said.

Prince Albert Grand Council Chief Brian Hardlotte welcomes the apology saying it will help heal the intergenerational trauma caused by residential schools.

“On behalf of PAGC’s Executive, Senators, and Chiefs, we are grateful for this long-awaited apology by the highest member of the Catholic Church. By taking responsibility for the harm inflicted upon generations of our people, this apology marks the first step toward healing and reconciliation, and will be vital in helping to restore and rebuild trusting relationships with our members,” said Grand Chief Hardlotte in a media release. “We have waited over a hundred years for this day, and we continue to wait for the church to take more drastic measures, such as the revoking of the 15thcentury papal orders that were behind the Doctrine of Discovery, which not only influenced the residential schools, but were the foundation of the Indian Act as well as the reserve system.”

However, he joins in on the calls for the catholic church to disavow the papal bulls put out in 1422 and 1455 that justified the colonization of lands.

The PAGC leadership recommends, when the pope comes to Canada to speak with survivors, to visit the Shrine of St. Anne where members of PAGC communities gather every July.

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nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell