Brockville woman shares her families' powerful residential school story

Photo: Facebook

Samantha Ross

Indigenous peoples across the country are sharing their powerful stories involving the residential schools on this National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Brockville resident Samantha Ross is a proud citizen of the Otipemisiwak Métis Government in Alberta. Sadly, her mother was part of the "Sixties Scoop", the large-scale removal or “scooping” of Indigenous children from their homes, communities and families of birth through the 1960s.

Samantha says her mother endured years of abuse while being in and out of foster care, but that's not all.

To this day, her mother lives with that pain and trauma.

Samantha's grandmother and great grandmother were both residential school survivors and last week she was empowered by her employer to share her story to her peers.

She believes there's a path to reconciliation, but there's still a lot of work to be done.

Full interview below:

Story by Harper Cotie