‘What happens next’: Day school survivor reflects on Pope’s Canadian visit

The Pope’s “penitential pilgrimage” across Canada – a six-day visit in Alberta, Quebec and Nunavut that saw the pontiff apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in residential schools – has been met with celebration and criticism.

For Diane Janvier-Dugan, a Dene day school survivor from La Loche, Sask., Pope Francis’ apology was an important step forward.

But more importantly for Janvier-Dugan, is what comes next.

A personal apology from the Pope was number 58 in a list of 94 calls to action included in the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a comprehensive, six-year examination of the tragic legacy of Canada’s residential school system.

There are three more calls to action included in the document’s “Church Apologies and Reconciliation” section.

“Now we have calls 59, 60 and 61. That needs to happen next,” said Janvier-Dugan. “And I hope that’s what comes out of this visit from the Pope, and that the rest of the Catholic congregations, all other Christian churches are educated on the history of what Christianity has done in the name of Christianity, has done to Indigenous people across this country.”

• Call No. 59 asks the church create strategies to teach the church’s role in colonization and residential schools;
• Call No. 60 asks the church to educate all student clergy, theology schools and seminarians on the need to respect Indigenous culture, spirituality and history;
• Call No. 61 asks the church to establish permanent funding for Indigenous People for various healing, reconciliation, and cultural revitalization projects.

“I really feel like the church, the Vatican needs to lead on the calls to action that Canada has already spent $72 million on creating through the Truth and Reconciliation,” said Janvier-Dugan. “There is such valuable information there.”

WATCH: Lac Ste. Anne pilgrim waiting until after Pope leaves over disruption

The day school survivor, who currently lives in Saskatoon, feels Canadians simply don’t know enough about the TRC’s 94 recommendations. She believes if every Canadian knew about them and spoke about them, it would change their opinions of Indigenous People.

“Institutional racism and just all kinds of things within Canada that exclude Indigenous People would lessen,” said Janvier-Dugan. “And people can thrive, Indigenous People can start thriving… I mean, we’ve thrived already. But there are many barriers that we still face. And those barriers can be eliminated by educating white Canadians.

“That’s what this is about. It’s about educating people who had no idea the privilege that they have received through the oppression of Indigenous People. And we need to acknowledge that, all of us together, for things to get better.”

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Janvier-Dugan was born and raised Catholic, and her 92-year-old mother continues to be a devout Catholic. Every year they journey to the sacred pilgrimage site of Lac Ste. Anne, northwest of Edmonton. It’s a place that brings her mother healing.

But Janvier-Dugan’s personal faith is much more complicated.

“I don’t have any faith, at least the Dene faith,” she said. “The Catholic Church and the Government of Canada did a very good job of stripping that from us through colonization, through Catholicism over the years. So I don’t know how to celebrate the way the Dene celebrated long before Christianity or Catholicism came along, and long before European contact.”

WATCH: Full interview with Dene day-school Survivor 

Janvier-Dugan says part of her own healing journey will include the reconciliation of that Dene faith. That began with a trip with her husband this summer to the Navajo Nation in the United States.

Navajo People are considered descendants and a branch of Dene People from northern Canada.

“Navajo People have learned that they still have their culture intact. They celebrate in the Navajo traditional ways, not the Christian ways. And I didn’t know that but I wanted to learn more about it.

“We visited for a couple of weeks different Navajo communities, went to different museums… I was so fascinated by it. I want to learn more.”

When reflecting on her time in day school, she says she’s found some way to reconcile what was done to her and the thousands of Indigenous youth in both day schools and residential schools across Canada.

“How I deal with that is that I believe that the people who did those things, they’re not doing God’s work. They were never doing God’s work. And there’s something in them, some brokenness in them that made them do that.

“So that’s the only way I could square with it.”

As the day school survivor continues her journey, she attempts to balance the hypocrisy of the church with her own culture. Pope Francis’ visit to Alberta – and the pilgrimage site of Lac Ste. Anne – is part of that journey.

“The Pope’s visit is not going to fix everything, but it’s a journey to see what happens next, to see what the people that I work with, the people I live with around me that are white people – I live in a white community – to see how things change, see how this visible effect, see what the church does to help educate all of their congregations, whether they have Indigenous members or not.”

At the very least, Janvier-Dugan feels the Pope’s six-day journey to Canada and the apology that came with it will have a global impact because of the number of eyes and listeners now paying attention to something they knew nothing about.

“And I don’t want it to end there. I want it to continue…” she said. “I really feel like people are ready to have this conversation of what’s going on. And the younger generation really want to listen, the millennials… Gen Z. Yeah, they are ready to hear this. They’re ready to talk about this stuff. And those are the people that are going to be running this country in a few years. And that’s important.”

—With files from The Canadian Press.