Two loud cries roared across the land this week as Indigenous leader Wilton Littlechild bestowed a headdress on Pope Francis.
He did all this despite spending 14 years as a child at the Ermineskin Residential School, 1951-64. In an interview with the 60 Minutes journalism show, Littlechild talked about how he was stripped at school of his real name and was known by his number, 65. He experienced psychological and sexual abuse, he said.
As a commissioner of the TRC, Littlechild said he heard nearly 7,000 testimonies from former students of residential schools. “They told of the way our languages were suppressed, our culture taken from us and our spirituality denigrated.”Article content And Vancouver’s Mike Alexander of the National Indigenous Diabetes Association: “Whoever put a headdress on the Pope can meet me in the parking lot at 7 p.m. I’m going to personally feed you a knuckle sandwich.”But it’s crucial to note Littlechild also got understanding and some strong support from other Indigenous people.
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