At former Shingwauk residential school, community gathers in truth and remembrance

For Shirley Horn, walking into Algoma University will never be ordinary.

The institution may now be a place of higher learning, but its walls once held the Shingwauk Indian Residential School, where she spent six years of her childhood.

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“I have a 77-year relationship with this building — very, very odd, but it’s true,” Horn told the crowd gathered Monday morning. “I hope that people are able to feel the healing that is going on. I know I do.”

That tension — between the history of loss and the work of healing — set the tone for the university’s observance of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Dozens of survivors, faculty, students, and community members stood together on the front loop for ceremony, reflection, and a flag-raising that spoke to both remembr