Maskwacis elder sees big change in her community following papal visit

An elder who attended the apology of Pope Francis said his actions lifted a weight off of her mind and allowed her community to begin the healing process.

Elder Mary Moonias of the Louis Bull Tribe spent 10 years in a residential school. She was taken from her family when she was just seven years old.

“There was four of us: myself and three little ones,” she said about her brothers and sister that attended at the same time.

Moonias said she was not allowed to talk to her siblings. She would go to school to learn to read and write, and in the summer she would return home and attend ceremonies with her family.

“We’d attend Sun Dance and other ceremonies,” she said. “I (would) go home to my language.”

In July of 2022, Moonias sat in front of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as she watched Pope Francis make his historic apology in Maskwacis on Treaty 6 land. She said it felt like a burden was being lifted.

Moonias noted a change in her community, especially in how it has started coming together to heal and move forward since the apology was made.

“I really feel that it was a big change. I see a change in our people,” she said. “Ceremonies are being celebrated again. I see people are much happier.”

Not everyone found healing in the words of Pope Francis. Bert Bull, a cultural adviser with the Louis Bull Tribe, said he did not want to see him or hear the apology.