Some residential school survivors say Pope, church owe more than an apology as delegation at Vatican this week
CBC
Warning: This story contains distressing details
Warren Seeseequasis trudges through the snowy field where St. Michael's Indian Residential School once stood.
"Where the other two pine trees are there, that's where the actual school was," Seeseequasis says.
In the adjacent cemetery, crosses and small headstones mark the graves of former students. When the snow clears, local residents will start looking for others buried in unmarked graves.
Seeseequasis, a band councillor for the nearby Beardy's & Okemasis Cree Nation in central Saskatchewan, said many survivors avoid this site.
The deprivations, abuse and crimes committed at St. Michael's and other residential schools are well-documented.
Seeseequasis says much of the poverty, addictions and health problems facing his people today can be traced back to the school.
That's why Seeseequasis and many others say Pope Francis and the Catholic Church owe them much more than an apology.
"That [pain] is still in here. It's been how many years, and I still cry," survivor Audrey Eyahpaise said in a recent interview at her small apartment, just blocks from the St. Michael's site.
"You guys destroyed us. Now help, help our people."
A delegation of survivors, Indigenous leaders and Catholic Church officials is in the Vatican this week to ask Pope Francis to come to Canada to deliver a long-awaited apology.
CBC News interviewed Eyahpaise and more than a dozen other survivors, family members and supporters back in Canada. Most say a papal apology would be welcome, but that the Catholic Church must first provide the promised compensation and documents.
"You're supposed to be preaching love and care and respect for your fellow man, but if we have to beg for them to apologize and to keep these promises, I don't think they understand," said Audrey Eyahpaise's cousin, Garnet Eyahpaise.
"We lost do much. It was taken away from us. For many years, I couldn't say 'I love you' to my kids."
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