As a young man, Gary Fjellgaard remembers watching a band of brown faces marching down the street in Prince George.

The boys were students at the Lejac Indian Residential School, which also had great baseball and hockey teams, Fjellgaard recalled.

“They were all so good and they we all so disciplined,” he said.

“But I had no idea what was behind it until it all came out years and years later.”

It seems others didn’t know either, and it wasn’t until this year that the federal government issued a statement of apology to former students of Indian residential schools for the cultural genocide and abuses they suffered at the schools for more than a century.

Fjellgaard also remembers hearing this apology on the CBC while driving with his wife.

And the realization of the truth of a matter he had bore witness to on a regular and completely casual basis was so overwhelming that he had to pull his car over.

“It suddenly hit me,” he said.

“I was part of that generation that more-or-less knew what was going on and I didn’t do anything about it.”

Still, it was difficult to confirm.

“It probably didn’t occur to a lot of people to question it because the authority was the federal governments, of course, and the authority was the churches — it was like a doctor, they’re always right,” he said.

“So you don’t question it. I question everything now.”

Resolved to make it right, however, Fjellgaard decided to write his own apology.

A renowned national singer and songwriter, his work was done in one night and I Apologize is now available free online so as many people as possible can hear it.

“I wanted as many survivors and their families to hear this so that they’ll know that there’s people out there, like me, who really care,” Fjellgaard said.

The song is being well received by First Nations, he added, noting it’s become part of the ongoing reconciliation process in this country.

Although just a small part of that process, “sometimes a song, in three minutes, can say more than a week of symposiums and lectures.

“Music has a lot of power,” Fjellgaard said.

On his annual The Contenders tour with Valdy, Fjellgaard will perform at the Sagebrush Theatre on Nov. 8.

In addition to I Apologize, the duo, who have been performing together since the 1970s, will be performing some new music as well as old favourites.

“We’re still writing, we’re still in the game, we’re still in the running — we’re still contenders,” Fjellgaard said.

Tickets are available at Kamloops Live! Box Office, 1025 Lorne St., or by calling 250-374-5483.