Leaders from Canada's political parties apologized Wednesday for the pain inflicted on thousands of children who were forced into the residential school system.
"It was wrong to separate children....a void," said Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Margaret Commodore watched the speeches on video along with about 1,500 aboriginals in North Vancouver.
Like many survivors of the residential school system, she has lived in a void for much of her life, and it is only in the last few years that she has healed enough not to be angry. Nothing, not even this apology, will take away the harsh memories.
"It was decades ago that I went. But you know, the pain never leaves," she said.
Commodore's experience mirrors that of the 150,000 aboriginal children who suffered 'forced assimilation', losing culture, comfort and care.
"Everything was regimental. Lineup to go eat. Lineup to go to sleep. Lineup to come indoors or outdoors. Lineup to get your cod liver oil. You had to lineup for everything,'' said Commodore, adding that she experienced no emotional warmth during those years.
"Ahh. No. That was missing," she said.
Commodore is a member of the Stolo First Nation.
At age seven, she was taken from her family in Chilliwack, B.C. and sent to the Alberni residential school on Vancouver Island. She spent the next eight years away from her two sisters and three brothers, who were sent to other schools in B.C.
In Alberni, she says she was regularly beaten and sexually abused, leaving her feeling inferior and lost.
"I went for eight years. If you stay there long enough you think it's normal. But it's not."
Commodore battled back, eventually becoming an MLA in Whitehorse, serving as ministers of health and justice.
The apology from the Canadian Government is welcomed as an important step toward reconciliation.
As for Margaret Commodore, she is still on her own journey of healing, a journey which may never end.
With a report by CTV British Columbia's Peter Grainger
