A group of First Nations people passed through Williams Lake as part of a three-week walk from Hazelton to Lytton to raise awareness about the survivors of residential schools.

The Gitxsan Spirit Residential School Survivor Walk for Awareness is a 965-kilometre walk to raise awareness of residential school survivors and their families’ life-long healing process, said William Matthews, event organizer, when the group was in the lakecity last Tuesday.

The walk included those who were forced to attend residential schools, as well as several second generation youth whose parents attended.

The group is expected to reach Lytton on Friday, July 31 — the National Day of Reconciliation.

Matthews said that due to the federal government’s apology that was made one year ago, many survivors are upset that “nothing is being done” since the apology was made.

“We want them to help us towards healing,” he said. “That’s one big step to help us, not only survivors of residential schools, but our children and communities,” Matthews said.

He said residential schools have had a huge impact on the second generation, since the survivors have passed on the effects of residential schools onto their children.

The first residential school Matthews was sent to was in Port Alberni, where he spent five years not being able to have any contact with his family. He was then sent to a residential school in Lytton for two to three years, again not being able to have any contact with his family, including his siblings.

“It still hurts to me today,” he said.

He suffered from physical and sexual abuse and lost his language. It’s been 17 years since, but he says he thinks about his residential school experience everyday.

“You can never forget the things that happened,” he said.

After residential school, he was placed in foster care for a couple of years.

When he was old enough to leave, he was allowed to go back to his parents.

“I didn’t get to spend too much time with my mom and dad,” he said, adding that he blamed them for allowing him to be shipped away. “I didn’t get to say I am sorry, because I blamed them for letting me get shipped away. Little did I know it was the Indian Agent at the time and the RCMP and the government.”

Due to his experience, he now tries to make sure his two daughters and one son get everything he didn’t get when he was a boy and tries to teach them about their native language and culture and good parenting.

Jaye Turley is one of the youth members on the walk. He said both of his parents attended residential school, which caused him and his siblings to have a “very rough” childhood.

“My parents were very abusive,” he said. “They took a lot of their anger out on us. They weren’t taught how to love. They were only taught anger.”

Greg Wright Sr., said the reason for the walk is not only to draw awareness to his community’s residential school survivors, but to other First Nations communities to let them know they are not alone.

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“There is light at the end of the tunnel,” he said, adding that there are steps that can be taken towards healing. “For us, it’s a lot of prayers. We need to pray as a family and come together and unite as a family and draw unity amongst our young.”

Floyd Mowatt Sr. is from the Gitanmaax Reserve and attended residential school in Lytton from 1969 to 1977.

He said beatings at residential school were mandatory.

“I was always told by the preacher that they were doing it because they were trying to beat the Indian out of me, and it’s still here,” he said. “They didn’t do a good enough job.”

He said he was almost killed a few times while at residential school and was repeatedly molested by one of the supervisors.

He said the walk has helped him reclaim his spirit.

“It’s been very interesting because we’re trying to make ourselves a little tight family for this walk, and we get good times and bad times and we try to talk about them all,” he said, adding that the youngest walker is 14 and the oldest is 70. “This is something that I hope will change my entire life.”

Elvis Wilson, who is from Kispiox, B.C. said his experience in residential school has caused him to have a lot of anger that he can't overcome.

"It's hard to be on this walk," he said, adding that he attended residential school from 1966 to 1974. "I never got over what happened."

He said he was beat up and raped at residential school, where he lost his language and culture, as well as some of his hearing.

"I never really got over anything."

The residential school, he said, caused him to later get hooked on drugs and alcohol and become suicidal.

While he still struggles with drugs, he says he hasn't had alcohol in about a year.

With the help of a tutour, Wilson is now learning how to read and write.

"I want to learn how to read and write like everybody else," he said.

Reynold Williams from Kispiox, B.C. is also part of the walk.

He attended residential school from age nine to age 18, from 1949 to 1958.

There, he was physically abused, and was once pushed down the stairs, which caused him to receive a fractured skull.

Like the others, he too was separated from his family.

"Not once was able to see them," he says, adding that he also wasn't allowed to talk to his siblings.

He tries to be a good father by giving them money, but he was never taught in school how to show love or be a good parent.

"[They said] not once did you ever five us a hug or told us you love us,'" he said. "I didn't have that and I didn't know how to tell them I love them," he said.

He also struggled with alcohol, but has been drink free for nearly 24 years.

He said residential school is "like contagious disease, from one generation to the next."