Province commits $500,000 for healing centres for residential school survivors, families

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This article was published 04/04/2022 (1306 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Just days after Indigenous residential school survivors received an apology from Pope Francis, the Manitoba government has announced it will support healing centres for survivors and their families.

The province will invest $500,000 in funding for 10 centres across the province.

Mental Health and Community Wellness Minister Sarah Guillemard, along with Indigenous Reconciliation and Northern Relations Minister Alan Lagimodiere, said the facilities will advance reconciliation efforts.

“Manitoba is acknowledging past harms and responding to intergenerational traumas and needs of residential school survivors for support,” Guillemard said in a statement Monday.

“We will partner closely with these Indigenous-led organizations to help bring about healing through traditional Indigenous ceremonies, safe mental health approaches and holistic community-based care.”

Lagimodiere said the funding “strengthens Manitoba’s role in advancing reconciliation.”

“It expands culturally holistic healing and trauma support services while strengthening family connections around the shared experiences of Manitobans who attended Indigenous residential schools.”

Last Friday, in a historic recognition, Pope Francis, leader of the Roman Catholic Church, told a delegation of First Nations, Inuit and Métis representatives in Rome “with all my heart, I am very sorry,” for the pain and suffering endured by generations of residential school students and their families.

The Pope said he is planning to visit Canada sometime this year to apologize in person to survivors.

The province said the new funding is in addition to the $200,000 commitment madelast September to support programming and awareness for the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

The $500,000 also is on top of funding by the federal government under the Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support Program for eligible survivors and their families.

The organizations to receive funding include: the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre of Winnipeg, Cree Nation Tribal Health in The Pas, Keewatin Tribal Council in Thompson, Anish Corporation at Swan Lake First Nation, the Sagkeeng Indian Residential School Wellness Centre in Pine Falls and the West Region Treaty 2 and 4 Health Services in Dauphin.

“This one-time funding acknowledges the important of supporting our survivors, their families and communities throughout the difficult process of locating unmarked graves at former Indian residential school sites in Manitoba,” Eva Wilson Fontaine, of the Anish Corporation, said in a statement.

“It also ensures that survivors won’t have to walk this journey alone.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca