Apology Day Isabelle Knockwood

The short stories “Apology Day” by Isabelle Knockwood and “To Own Ourselves” by Niigonwedom James Sinclair share multiple connections when it comes to the residential school system. They have connections when it comes to the government failing to keep children safe, intergenerational trauma, and how the communities reacted to the government's apology. Over 15,000 indigenous children were sent to residential schools; over a third did not make it out alive. The residential school system was first initiated in the 1930s and later closed in 1996. The official apology made by the government was released in 2008 by Stephen Harper who was the prime minister at the time. The residential school system failed to keep these children safe as they were

This created intergenerational trauma for the indigenous community that still exists today. The trauma from the residential school system has impacted numerous generations and also the children of the survivors. When the official apology was released many Indigenous people felt it was insincere and the damage had already been done. They felt as though the people who needed the apology the most were not there to hear it, as they had lost their lives to the residential school system. The government failed to keep the children safe in residential schools, and this led to generational trauma being passed on for decades; however, when the government officially apologized and it was not enough to make up for the great loss and trauma these communities

The trauma these children faced followed them for the rest of their lives, and it got passed on to their children indirectly and also directly: “...The survivors are like family. We experienced trauma in childhood because we were separated from our biological families. Many times we had to look after each other in desperate situations. Today, as adults, we are healing collectively, like a spiritual family” (Knockwood 10). The majority of the survivors from the residential schools have been able to come together and take steps in the direction of their healing. Not only did the residential schools affect numerous generations of people, but they also affected their families and, later on, their children. In many stories of residential school survivors, they talk about the generational trauma experienced within their families and also their many communities. The children of survivors of residential schools have trauma passed down to them by their parents indirectly and occasionally directly. They become traumatized after hearing about the horrible experiences their parents had to endure and the underlying fear that it could happen to them as well. If an Indigenous person was sent to the residential schools when they were first opened, their children would most likely be sent there as well, due to them being open for multiple