1,700 Winnipeg students hear directly from residential school survivors at TRC event

Hundreds of students descended on Winnipeg's RBC Convention Centre on Wednesday for day two of the opening ceremonies for The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR).

It was called "Education Day" and focused on getting the history of residential schools into the hands of students and teachers.

"I believe that, as an educator myself, many students are starting to become aware that residential schools were up and running at some point and the details are just starting to unfold," said Marsha Missyabit, an aboriginal education consultant for the Winnipeg School Division.

Missyabit lead a session for about 300 students. In it, students were introduced to the residential school experience through the short film Shi-shi-etko. They also heard from survivor Rudy Okemow.

"He is going to share a little bit of his own experience," said Missyabit prior to the event on Wednesday. "I believe for many of the students, it will be a first time for them."

Students also took park in a project called "Heart Garden." Each of them wrote a message to a survivor.

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"I believe this is the reconciliation piece," said Missyabit. "They have the option of taking that heart with them to pass it to a survivor or leaving it with us."

Missyabit said in June 2016, the school division plans on making a heart garden out of those messages and inviting survivors to see it.

Other Education Day activities included: musical workshops with Nathan Cunningham and Leanne Goose; a youth panel on what reconciliation means to them; and a Facebook launch of the "Think Before You Share" campaign in Cree, Ojibwa and Inuktitut.

Students also heard from Truth and Reconciliation Commission chair Justice Murray Sinclair, Manitoba Treaty Commissioner Jamie Wilson and NCTR director Ry Moran.

In addition, the NCTR's new website and online database launched in front of the students at 2 p.m.

'Once our eyes met, he was so eager to ask me questions'

One group of students heard from Eugene Arcand, a survivor who spent 11 years in a residential school in Saskatchewan.

"It's an inherited responsibility to do what I can for public education and understanding in regards to what we experienced and the impact of those experiences on indigenous people today," he said.

Arcand said many of the students he spoke to are about the same age many of the survivors were when they were in the schools, but, "I'm very careful with children because the graphic nature doesn't belong in the minds of children," he said.

Arcand said he connected in particular with one student, Jackson Masterson. Masterson is in Grade 6 at Anola School.

"Jackson, once our eyes met, he was so eager to ask me questions and that doesn't happen a lot," said Arcand.

Masterson said hearing the story first hand, "made me feel sad for them that they had to go through that … I learned how hard it was on people that went to residential schools. I learned a lot."

Grade 8 student Maryum Saif said it's important for students to know what happened to move forward and make Canada a better country in the future.

"I think [what happened is] really wrong because everyone has the right to speak the language that they want and follow the religion they want to," said Saif.

Masterson agreed.

"This is a part of Canada's past, and we need to learn by our mistakes," he said.

In total, 1,700 Grade 4 to Grade 12 students and 350 educators took part.