Germaine McKenzie was filled with hope as she travelled the eight hours from her Innu First Nation on Quebec’s North Shore to attend the mass delivered by Pope Francis on Thursday morning at the Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré Basilica, near Quebec City.
Ultimately, the experience was disappointing for McKenzie, who survived nine years in a residential school as a child. But she says it reaffirmed something she’s been practising for years: leaning on community and Indigenous spirituality to heal, instead of colonialist institutions.
While the papal visit represented an important milestone for many survivors gathered in Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré, to some like McKenzie, it became less about the Pope and more
