Comments:Canadian Government apologises for Residential Schools

<!-- Leave this line alone. Add comments below

I am a native from Alert Bay, BC. I left my village in 1975 and have never returned or acknowledged being a native. I left feeling shame and anger for what and who I was. I have never known or realized what happened to my parents or siblings when they were young. During the time I was growing up no one would talk about or even acknowledge what happened to them while they were in the Residential School. I am the youngest of 13 children, my family now only has a handful of survivors from drugs and alcohol problems. Having been abused physically, sexually, mentally as a child by my father and siblings, I felt it was necessary to get away from it as soon as I could, I told myself that what happened to me as a child would never happen to my children. I would never become a statistic like so many of my family. It has been hard to deal with by myself, but I have a family of my own who don't have the memories of sexual abuse to haunt them. The reason for my letter today is to share my feelings which I witnessed yesterday June 11, 2008 by Steven Harper. I was all good, but too little too late. I have no recollection of my childhood, I was never put in a Residential School like my parents and siblings, but I suffered from the chain of experiences that they were forced to endure. When my father and brother passed away, I did not shed one tear for them because of the hate that I felt for them, what they did to me when I was a child was unforgiveable, or so I thought until now. I guess I have finally realized at age 52 that it wasn't their fault. It was what they were taught, that it was ok to have sex with small defenseless children, because it was what they had to endure while they were growing up. I feel bad and sorry that they were unable to distinguish the good and bad that they were being taught at these schools. They obviously came out well trained by the so call Christians that were taking advantage of them all. I can say today that for the first time in 40 years I UNDERSTAND and I FORGIVE my father and brother and sister for their wrongdoings. Yesterday's apology and speech by the Government took the blame away from my family. In my opinion this took way too long to happen, if this happened, even 40 years ago, when schools were starting to get shut down, in my opinion many family members of aboriginal culture would have survived and been treated differently by other cultures. This apology opened a big can of worms for myself and probably for many other second generation families, I just hope and pray to God that it can all be helpful to those that have to face these skeletons all over again. I pray that it will have a positive impact on the rest of their lives and the generations behind them.

Darlene Miller