'It's still a lot of hurting': Survivors of former North Vancouver residential school return to the site

Survivors of a former North Vancouver residential school were among hundreds who gathered at the site for a pilgrimage Friday.

St. Paul’s Indian Residential School ran from 1899 to 1958, on what is now the parking lot of St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School.

For survivor Gloria Guss, her time at the school is still too painful to discuss.

"It's still a lot of hurting, it's kind of hard right now,” Guss said.

Guss and three of her sisters came to honour their father, Ernest “Boydie” Guss.

“He went to the residential school in Mission, him and his brother, until they both ran away,” Guss told CTV News.

For the family full of survivors, it’s been a tough road. Guss said the trauma she and her relatives experienced attending residential schools and day schools impacted future generations. "It was hard on all of our kids and grandkids,” Guss said.

Guss and her sisters then joined the large crowd to walk over eight kilometres to the Tseil-Waututh Nation.

It’s a walk survivor Stan Thomas made every Friday, when students were sent home for the weekend.

"I just remember not learning my language. It being a Roman Catholic school, I knew more Latin than our traditional language,” Thomas said.

His daughter Jennifer Thomas, who’s currently the Chief of the Tseil-Waututh Nation, says her father had never spoken about his time at St Paul’s until last year’s walk.

"Last year was a really good day for him,” she said.

"We don’t pressure him to talk about it with us but it has opened him up – the walk has made him feel supported.”

Her father described seeing so many strangers coming out to support him as “overwhelming.”

While their may be a long road to go on the path to reconciliation and healing, Stan Thomas is encouraged with what he’s seeing.

“I was out at White Spot last night and even the little school kids had orange shirts on early,” he said.

“Even that meant a lot, that they were teaching their young children about residential schools.”