For Doug George-Kanentiio, who was forced to attend the Mohawk Institute for 18 months in the 1960s, preserving the physical school where he and thousands of others were abused was critical.

"I want them to see what it's like," he told CBC News.

George-Kanentiio, is from Akwesasne, a Kanienkehà:ka (Mohawk) community near Cornwall, Ont. He said he wants people to experience what it's like to walk through the halls, to not wonder whether it was real, and to know that the children who died there are not at rest.

"They still are in that building," he said.

The former Mohawk Institute — the longest-running residential school in Canada — now named the Woodland Cultural Centre, is preparing to open to the public for the first time as a museum on Sept. 30, National Day for Truth and Reconcilia

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