Prince Charles’ acknowledgment of the “suffering” of Canada’s indigenous peoples during his visit to the country is an important step, say several indigenous officials, who are now calling on the monarchy to issue an “apology”.
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“On behalf of my wife and myself, I want to acknowledge the suffering (of the natives) and tell them that our hearts are with them and their families,” said Thursday in Yellowknife (Northwest Territories) Prince Charles in a speech concluding his three-day visit to Canada.
After stops in Saint John of Newfoundland (east) and Ottawa, the princely couple concluded their journey on Thursday in northwestern Canada where Prince Charles returned to his “particularly touching meetings with survivors of residential schools for indigenous people who courageously recounted their experiences”.
“We need to listen to the truth of the lived experiences of Indigenous peoples and we need to work to better understand their pain and suffering,” he added.
For the president of the Métis National Council, Cassidy Caron, it is an “important step”. “It means a lot to us to see that Prince Charles and his family want to listen and hear the truths of Indigenous peoples,” she added.
For her part, RoseAnne Archibald, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, explained that she found the prince “very empathetic”.
But she added that she still hoped for an apology “not only on behalf of the Anglican Church for what happened in these institutions, but also for the failures in the relationship between the Crown and First Nations people”.
This visit comes a year after the discovery in Canada of the first graves of anonymous children on the site of former residential schools for natives, which caused a scandal and exposed the country’s colonial history.
Between the end of the 19th century and the 1980s, some 150,000 Indigenous children were forcibly recruited into more than 130 residential schools across the country, where they were cut off from their families, language and culture.
Thousands never came back. The authorities estimate their number between 4000 and 6000. In 2015, a national commission of inquiry had qualified this system of “cultural genocide”.
Pope Francis, who already presented his apologies in April before a delegation of Canadian indigenous representatives, will visit the country at the end of July to renew them.