Former residential school demolished on Meares Island

By Nora O’Malley, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Ha-Shilth-Sa Editor’s note: The following story contains strong language from former students of the Christie Indian Residential School and references that may be upsetting to some readers. Meares Island, B.C. – Shattered glass. Wailing cries soothed by traditional drums. Wood cracked as the digger excavator tore into the roof of the old Christie Indian Residential School, releasing decades of bridled sorrow and anger. “They gave me a sledgehammer. I went to town,” laughed Hesquiaht First Nation’s Cecil Sabbas, 74, who went to the Christie Indian Residential School for eight years. “As I was hitting it I said, and pardon my language, ‘Take that you mother fucker!’ Every hit I did. Take that. When I finally finished and demolished it, I said, ‘Fuck you!’…

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