New Book - Full Circle: The Aboriginal Healing Foundation & The Unfinished Work of Hope, Healing & Reconciliation
From Phil Fontaine's Preface of Wayne Spear's new book ...
FULL CIRCLE The Aboriginal Healing Foundation
& The Unfinished Work of Hope,
Healing & Reconciliation
I explained that many students had learned behaviours in the residential school, and that you do what has been done to you as a child. The priests and nuns ran our lives: everything we knew about parenting, community and survival was formed in these institutions. Everything we knew about life was shaped by the residential school. When we understand this, we begin to see that there are still areas where healing and reconciliation have to occur. Healing and reconciliation have to happen not only between indigenous people and the government of Canada, but within our families and communities.
I believe that when we get to this place, where we have overcome the anger and shame and dysfunction inherited from the residential schools, we will reclaim the full inheritance of our ancestors: the beauty, dignity and strength of our cultures and our ways.