Where are the Children?: Healing the Legacy of the Residential Schools

Silence is more often than not an expression of hurt or pain kept inside. This web site attempts to give voice to the untold stories of so many Aboriginal boys and girls who attended residential schools in Canada from 1831 to the 1990's.

The Legacy of Hope Foundation was established to address the long-term implications of the damage done to Aboriginal children and their families by many of the residential schools. The psychological wounds run deep and have infected new generations. Healing is a gradual process that will demand time and patience.

A primary objective of our work is to promote awareness among the Canadian public about residential schools and try to help them to understand the ripple effect those schools have had on Aboriginal life. But equally important, we want to bring about reconciliation between generations of Aboriginal people, and between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.

Everyone who belongs to the First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities has been affected by the residential school experience. Only through understanding the issues can we undertake this healing journey together.

The importance of the virtual exhibition was brought into sharp focus in 2001, when Aboriginal youth at the Aboriginal Healing Foundation Youth Advisory meeting in Edmonton expressed a lack of knowledge of the residential school history. They felt that awareness of this chapter in their history should be the central factor in healing and reconciliation.