OTTAWA (AFP) - - Canada's prime minister officially apologized to natives for more than a century of abuses at boarding schools set up to assimilate its indigenous peoples.
"The government of Canada sincerely apologizes and asks the forgiveness of the aboriginal peoples of this country for failing them so profoundly," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in the House of Commons Wednesday.
"We are sorry."
Flanked by MPs, native leaders in traditional garments and Indian Residential School alumni, many holding back tears, Harper said: "The treatment of children in Indian Residential Schools is a sad chapter in our history."
He acknowledged "two primary objectives of the residential school system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their home, families, traditions, and cultures and to assimilate them in to the dominant culture.
"These objectives were based on the assumption that aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal," he said.
"The government now recognizes that the consequences of the Indian Residential Schools policy were profoundly negative and that this policy has had a lasting and damaging impact on aboriginal culture, heritage, and language."
Beginning in 1874, 150,000 Indian, Inuit and Metis children in Canada were forcibly enrolled in the 132 boarding schools run by Christian churches on behalf of the federal government in an effort to integrate them into society.
Many survivors alleged abuse by headmasters and teachers, who stripped them of their culture and language.
As well, they say their education left them disconnected from their families, communities and feeling "ashamed" of being born native.
It was "the darkest chapter in Canada's history," said Chief Phil Fontaine of the Assembly of First Nations. "They tried to kill the Indian in the child, to eradicate any sense of Indian-ness from Canada," he told AFP.
Wearing an Indian feather headdress, his voice cracking, Fontaine told the House, following Harper: "The attempts to erase our identities hurt us deeply. But it also hurt all Canadians and impoverished the character of this nation."
"The memories of residential schools sometimes cut like merciless knives at our souls," he said. "But this day will help us to put that pain behind us."
"For the generations that will follow us, we bear witness today in this House that our survival as First Nations peoples in this land is affirmed forever."
"We still have to struggle, but now we are in this together," Fontaine said.
His words were echoed by native leaders who formed a "healing circle" with Fontaine and the oldest of the alumni, 104-year-old Marguerite Wabano of the Attawapiskat First Nation, on the floor of the House of Commons.
And they were cheered by tens of thousands gathered at community centres nationwide to watch the solemn telecast event.
"This apology will help us all mark the end of this dark period in our collective history as a nation," said Mary Simon, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and a former Canadian ambassador.
"It's a day for us to move forward," said Clement Chartier, president of the Metis National Council.
Later, the prime minister presented dignitaries with tea and tobacco, and participated in a native smudge ceremony, as Metis fiddles and Inuit drums played.
There are some 1.3 million aboriginals in Canada, out of a total population of 33 million.
Most of Canada's Indian Residential Schools, modeled after US Indian industrial schools of the period, were shut down in the 1970s. The last one closed in 1996 in Saskatchewan province.
The government's apology is part of a 1.9-billion dollar (Canadian, US) settlement with 80,000 former students in 2006 -- the largest court settlement in Canadian history.
A five-year commission headed by Canada's top aboriginal jurist was also appointed in April to probe abuses at the schools, as part of the deal.
It plans to hear testimony from thousands of survivors and officials, as well as gather and review millions of government and church documents to be made public for the first time.
