NORTH BATTLEFORD — People of all ages attended a two-day conference at the Western Development Centre in North Battleford Sept. 3 and 4 called Honouring the Past, Healing for Our Future.
Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs (BATC) and Acahkos Awasisak – Star Children organized the event, which focused on sharing stories from residential school survivors and looking at ways of healing and coping to move forward.
"Lots of these people attending are former students of St. Anthony's Indian Residential School in Onion Lake, St. Michael's Residential School in Duck Lake, and the Delmas Residential School," said Norma Pewapisconias, Indian Residential School (IRS) project manager at BATC. "There's a few people that have been sharing their stories, sharing experiences, but mainly it's a place where they can come and gain some knowledge, gain some connections with others, learn how they are coping, how they themselves move forward and on with life."
A number of students from Mosquito Grizzly Bear's Head Lean Man First Nation and other schools were also in attendance.
"They're here to learn about the residential school era, learn right from the survivors themselves, learn about cultural protocols," Pewapisconias said. "Because of the residential schools, a lot of families have lost those kind of traditions, those protocols, that knowledge."
She said social problems in communities, like drug and alcohol abuse, neglect of children and loss of parenting, can be attributed to the impact from residential school trauma. But it doesn't have to always be that way.
"[With] that understanding, they can understand why things are the way they are. They can do something about it then," Pewapisconias said. "They can come to events like this and learn about the tradition, learn about traditional parenting, learn about coping ways that are out there now, like art therapy and equine therapy, things that will boost their confidence, improve self-esteem and [help them] feel proud about themselves as being Indigenous people."
North Battleford Mayor Kelli Hawtin and Battleford Mayor Ames Leslie also spoke at the conference.
"They spoke really well on the reconciliation and their efforts in the Battlefords and North Battleford," Pewapisconias said.
On Sept. 4, a youth panel had a positive and inspiring discussion.
"A lot of kids that we have on the panel have been able to deal with stuff like family problems, community problems, and they've managed to go into the world and do different things," Pewapisconias said.
