DRAFT: Indigenous people made history in Rome. Here’s how some want that history recorded

Indigenous peoples made history in Rome last week. Global News asked a handful of them how they would like the delegation to be written about for years to come.

First Nations, Métis and Inuit delegates wrapped up a historic delegation to Rome last week, receiving an unprecedented apology from Pope Francis related to residential schools.

Before nearly 200 people, the head of the Catholic Church asked for forgiveness for the pain and suffering caused by some members of the clergy in the institutions of assimilation, which operated between the 1830s and 1990s.

The pontiff said he was “deeply grieved” by the stories of “suffering, hardship, discrimination and various forms of abuse” he heard throughout the week. He extended a hand of friendship, promising to visit Canada and work together to bring an end to “colonial mentality.”

Opinions differ on whether Pope Francis’s words were sufficient or appropriate, given the number of requests from survivors that he did not address in his televised speech on April 1. There is little doubt, however, that the apology, the delegation and all it achieved will be written into the Canadian history books.

Between March 28 and April 1, Global News asked Indigenous delegates, their friends and family in Rome how they would like the events of the week to be recorded in those books, which may be read by children in school for generations to come.

Phil Fontaine’s daughter

“I’d like the history books to reflect the tremendous amount of hard work and commitment that the delegates and the survivors have put forth over the years. I’d like to I’d like the history books to acknowledge all the people who couldn’t be here today — survivors. I have aunts and uncles, grandparents, that went to residential schools and this is really for them as well. I think it would have meant so much to be told, ‘We understand that this caused you great harm and we acknowledge it and we’re accountable.'”

British Columbia delegate, chief of Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc