Grade 6 and 7 students at Alexandra School have been learning about Indian Residential Schools and the legacy they left in our country. They have written the following letters to former students with serious thought, hard questions and deep empathy.

We are pleased to share them, but remind survivors and their families that the Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line is available 24-hours a day for anyone experiencing pain or distress - 1-866-925-4419

Dear residential school survivor what was it like in the classes? Where they really mean? Did they kill people on purpose, or did they just try to hurt you? How long did you have to stay there? Do you think you changed from being there? It must have been really hard to listen to them. I wouldn’t have been able to survive a few days there. I wouldn’t like to be away from my family for that long. I'm sorry you had to suffer from Canadas mistakes. Are you mad at the people who were there? I would be. Do you think they were trying to make you scared of them? It would have made me scared of them. Some people say that Canada is a peaceful country. Now I know that Canada was not always a good country. How did someone not find out that I was wrong sooner. Did you learn anything useful like how to read, write or do math there. Did they tell your parents when you would be back if not that would be worse for them. How old were you when you were taken? I am 11 right now so I think that would be around the age people would be taken. I hope I can learn more about you.

Dear residencele school kids, I know what you all been though was horrible and I can't even imagine being taken away from my family and friends. I hope thing get better in the future.

Sincerely. Maya

Dear Residential school child,

What you have experienced is completely terrible and never should have happened. As kids is when we grow and discover our interests, identity, and it’s the prime when we explore ourselves. For you to have that stripped from you is horrible. For the government to think it was right to do this to you is also terrible. If you were in power at the time, what would you change or, what rules would you make to prevent it? Do you think that being brought up and having that happen to you, affected the way you see and treat things now? Without having what happened in the past do you think you would be the same person today? How old were you when you were put in a residential school? Through out the schooling I can’t even imagine what you went through and I don’t think I want to. It’s good you made it okay and were able to move on somewhat. Hopefully you never have anything like that happen to you again or to anyone. If you open up any stories to anyone it takes a lot of bravery having to relive those through story form. Although not as bad it still must hurt having those memories stuck with you for the rest of your life. But at-least now you’ve had a chance and had an better life than back then.

Brooklynn

Dear, residential school child

Hi, I hope that you are okay now that you are out of that horrid school, I have a question and I’m very sorry if this is inconsiderate to your feelings you don’t have to answer if it brings up any unwanted emotions but if you had a choice and all you had seen where the ads for the school and your parents had left the choice up to you would you have gone to the residential school. I also have one more question once you got out of the school would you help the other natives in your area hide the children knowing what they would go through in the school. I would like to apologize on behalf of all Europeans for everything that the white people had put you through, that we tried to make sure that you couldn’t be yourself, that we tried to knock the “native” out of     you, that we beat you, that you couldn’t see your family, that you weren't home at Christmas, that we made you speak English, that we couldn’t just accept the fact that that we are 2 different people with different religions who are going to disagree sometimes, finally for the fact that we took you from your home without remorse.

Dear residential child, I was never a residential student however all you guys didn’t deserve having to go through all this trauma. How did you feel when you were in the school? What did you guys think about most of the time? What types of things did you see every day? I very well understand that I wasn’t in the trauma you children were in but, I can tell you I would have been so scared. Canada shouldn’t have made you guys go through this. What Canada should have done was think about how you would feel if your children got made to do such horrible things. Forced to eat, speak, and wear what wasn’t part of their religion or followed culture. If I were prime minister at that time, I wouldn’t have let all those children suffer and get killed. I wouldn’t have put them anywhere close to trauma. I would have bought a nice school for the community and had some rules for the teachers, you would get arrested if you hurt any child. My words I would have said to stand up if I was the leader of Canada back then. 1) We must let these kids live their young life's without worrying about if they are going to stay alive or not. 2) Without worrying if they’re ever going to live another day. 3) without worrying how much longer they will see their parents again. You guys can’t destroy these kids' brains. Canada got so many things wrong. They wreaked these kids' lives and future. RIP

I’m am so sorry to the kids that we’re in residential Schools and who got taken away from their families who loved them dearly, I could never even imagine what those kids were feeling when they got taken away out of nowhere and put into somewhere horrible. I think Canada should have acted faster and maybe more kids from the residential schools and camps would have survived. Nobody should have to go through what they went through. Honestly I think the Canadian government should have done way more way faster as nobody should ever go through something like that. So many people are either traumatized or dead from residential schools and from what I’ve heard the government doesn’t even want to dig any more up. This is so sad and horrible, people were taken from their homes for no reason and abused. Thank you for listening.

I'm so sorry you had to go through this being a child. I couldn't imagine this being done to me. My school life is full of fun. I have lots of friends and my xteachers are very nice people. I have lots of work to do in my class which is hard sometimes but we do have fun to. I believe Canada is a great place to live and I’m so sorry you had this happen to you. I wish you all the best in the future and I hope Canda finds a way to repay for their mistakes.

Cole