The call for truth and reconciliation for aboriginal people from the abuses imposed on them through the residential school program will take generations to repair, says the executive director of the Kelowna Friendship Centre.

Edna Terbasket says the emotional impact on aboriginal families by the residential school program lasted for eight generations, the last of the schools officially closing down in the mid-1990s.

Today, what went on in the schools has been subjected to scorn and ridicule, legal lawsuits and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling on the Pope to offer a formal apology on behalf of the Catholic Church, which ran the schools.

香蕉视频直播淵ou can香蕉视频直播檛 expect to reverse all the harm that was done in one generation,香蕉视频直播� Terbasket said. 香蕉视频直播淚f this went on for seven or eight generations, it will take that long to repair the damage that was caused.香蕉视频直播�

She was one of one five panel speakers and a keynote speaker who participated in a public forum in Kelowna at the Laurel Packinghouse about the concept of reconciliation, understanding the past and coming together for the future of aboriginal children on Thursday.

Among those in attendance were area aboriginal band members, child development workers and politicians including Lake Country Mayor James Baker and local MLAs Norm Letnick and Steve Thomson.

Terbasket talked about how her aboriginal culture was torn apart on two fronts香蕉视频直播攁 federal government seemingly intent on wiping out their culture and facilitating the public stereotypes of aboriginal people being lazy and stupid, coupled with residential schools where students were subjected to horrible acts of sexual and violent abuse.

香蕉视频直播淐an you imagine your five-year-old child forcibly being taken from your home and sent away to a school. Can you see, can you imagine the impact that would have on any family?香蕉视频直播� Terbasket said.

Terbasket said that scenario would have played out for her mom except for her grandfather putting a stop to it

香蕉视频直播淭he RCMP officer and Catholic church priest came to the house to get her, and my dad confronted them armed with his shotgun and said, 香蕉视频直播楪et out of the car. Go ahead.香蕉视频直播�

香蕉视频直播淭hey backed off and my mom didn香蕉视频直播檛 have to go to the residential school. But there was another story as well, the one about her wondering where all her cousins were, they were taken away to residential schools, and why her aunts and uncles seemed consumed by emotional pain and drank so much.

香蕉视频直播淲e need to think about that trauma that so many of our people went through, the impact that has on their lives and subsequent generations, their children, that followed.香蕉视频直播�

As a result, her mom, while fluent in her own language, disengaged from her own culture, 香蕉视频直播渨anting her children to just fit in, not feel like they are any less than anyone else.香蕉视频直播�

The keynote speaker, Reconciliation Canada ambassador Yvonne Rigsby-Jones, said she was not exposed to residential schools as a child, but her husband was.

香蕉视频直播淚 had no idea up to that point what had been going on, and I could see in our blended family how it was affecting the relationship with his daughter,香蕉视频直播� Rigsby-Jones recalled.

She said the challenge for residential school survivors is to break the cycle of pain, to understand what was robbed from them in childhood, to learn how to be kind and loving to others.

香蕉视频直播淭here is so much work yet to repair the harm that has been done to our culture, but it starts with awareness,香蕉视频直播� said Rigsby-Jones. 香蕉视频直播淲e need acknowledgement for our past, and find positive ways to move forward to help build a better place for our children.香蕉视频直播�