美国国家公共电台 NPR--Pope Francis arrives in Canada as Indigenous groups seek a full apology

Pope Francis arrives in Canada as Indigenous¹ groups seek a full apology

Transcript²

The pope is on what he's calling his pilgrimage of penance³ — apologizing to Indigenous groups for years of abuse that many suffered at government and Catholic-run residential⁴ and day schools.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Pope Francis is traveling across Canada this week to deliver in-person apologies to Indigenous people for the Catholic Church's role in running residential schools for Indigenous children. Today, the Pope will meet with the Maskwacis community. Emma Jacobs visited the First Nations Reserve south of Edmonton and brings us this story.

MATT WILDCAT: Over there, you can see one right to the left of the tree.

BRIAN WILDCAT: Oh, yeah. I wonder...

EMMA JACOBS, BYLINE⁵: Brian Wildcat crawls his pickup⁶ around the edge of the Ermineskin Cemetery⁷, his son, Matt, in the passenger seat. Most of the markers are wooden crosses, but some of the newer ones have a second symbol, a circle around them.

B WILDCAT: It's kind of a Cree belief. People refer to it sometimes as medicine wheel.

JACOBS: One of the first of the circle markers belongs to Brian's older brother, Darrel, who attended the nearby Ermineskin Indian Residential School run by Catholic nuns⁸ and brothers from 1894 to 1969.

B WILDCAT: He was so adamant⁹ about - he didn't want nothing with the church - no cross, nothing. So there's just a big circle.

JACOBS: The Catholic Church ran about 60% of Canada's residential schools intended to assimilate Indigenous children. Canada's Truth and Reconciliation¹⁰ Commission in 2015 called the system a form of cultural genocide. Students experienced physical discipline, sexual abuse by staff and neglect. Many here at the Ermineskin School contracted tuberculosis¹¹. And finally, after all these years, the pope will make the first stop here in what he is calling his pilgrimage of penance.

B WILDCAT: What are you making here?

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: These are apricot squares.

B WILDCAT: Apricot squares, OK.

JACOBS: Over the weekend, preparations were underway in Maskwacis for the pontiff's arrival. Wildcat, once a day student at Ermineskin, now runs the school district, administered by the four Cree nations of Maskwacis. In the high school kitchen, staff are making food. The light-filled building sits on the site of the old residential school.

B WILDCAT: This was the gym. This was the only part we kept. And then...

JACOBS: Wildcat's son, Matt Wildcat, a professor at the University of Alberta, says the community has mixed feelings about the pope's visit.

M WILDCAT: Some people think that to be somebody who heals that you have to forgive the church. And I don't think that's true. I think a lot of Indigenous people are healthy, resilient people...

B WILDCAT: Without forgiving.

M WILDCAT: ...Who have a lot of anger towards the church still, right? But, of course, some people feel that to achieve dignity in all of this situation requires an apology from the pope, right?

B WILDCAT: Which I think is the right thing for him to do. But that won't change anything.

JACOBS: For others, says the chief of the Ermineskin First Nation, Randy Ermineskin.

RANDY ERMINESKIN: This is an opportunity, the first and maybe last for some, to perhaps find some closure for themselves and their families.

JACOBS: Necessary but difficult, Ermineskin says, and likely to bring up painful memories for many. His own brother never recovered from his experience in residential school and killed himself at 17.

ERMINESKIN: So he came home, but he didn't come home.

JACOBS: Thousands of former students are expected to attend the pope's first address, and large numbers of mental health workers will be on site to support them. Many worked with survivors¹² who testified to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. An in-person apology by the pope was one of its final recommendations. The pope initially¹³ declined.

CRYSTAL FRASER: The pope coming, that is a direct response to the now thousands of unmarked graves that have been located to, you know, physical proof of genocide.

JACOBS: Historian Crystal Fraser, who is also Gwichya Gwich'in, says a discovery last summer changed things - around 200 unmarked graves at a former Catholic-run school in British Columbia. The aftershocks included more searches and more grim discoveries elsewhere. Actions, she said, should follow the apologies.

FRASER: And there are still a number of archival documents and records and artifacts, cultural items of significance at the Vatican and in Rome that need to be returned.

JACOBS: Records sought by historians but also those interested in possible prosecutions¹⁴ of living staff members who committed abuses. In Maskwacis, it took a long time to rebuild trust in the school system, says Brian Wildcat. And to reshape it, this fall, the district will launch a new curriculum with a focus on Cree language and culture.

B WILDCAT: The schools were weaponized against First Nations, and now the schools are a tool for building hope and change.

JACOBS: There were many harms done, he says. They've waited many years for this moment. An apology in person will go some way to help with the healing. But much of the work is being done by the community itself.

For NPR News, I'm Emma Jacobs in Maskwacis.

1 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 penance   

n.（赎罪的）惩罪

参考例句：

• They had confessed their sins and done their penance.他们已经告罪并做了补赎。
• She knelt at her mother's feet in penance.她忏悔地跪在母亲脚下。

4 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

7 cemetery   

n.坟墓，墓地，坟场

参考例句：

• He was buried in the cemetery.他被葬在公墓。
• His remains were interred in the cemetery.他的遗体葬在墓地。

8 nuns   

n.（通常指基督教的）修女， （佛教的）尼姑( nun的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Ah Q had always had the greatest contempt for such people as little nuns. 小尼姑之流是阿Q本来视如草芥的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Nuns are under vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. 修女须立誓保持清贫、贞洁、顺从。 来自辞典例句

9 adamant   

adj.坚硬的，固执的

参考例句：

• We are adamant on the building of a well-off society.在建设小康社会这一点上，我们是坚定不移的。
• Veronica was quite adamant that they should stay on.维罗妮卡坚信他们必须继续留下去。

10 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。

11 tuberculosis   

n.结核病，肺结核

参考例句：

• People used to go to special health spring to recover from tuberculosis.人们常去温泉疗养胜地治疗肺结核。
• Tuberculosis is a curable disease.肺结核是一种可治愈的病。

12 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

13 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

14 prosecutions   

起诉( prosecution的名词复数 )； 原告； 实施； 从事

参考例句：

• It is the duty of the Attorney-General to institute prosecutions. 检察总长负责提起公诉。
• Since World War II, the government has been active in its antitrust prosecutions. 第二次世界大战以来，政府积极地进行着反对托拉斯的检举活动。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件