At the top of the hill overlooking Tofino’s First Street Dock, Nuu-chah-nulth elder Tom Curley, 86, paused for a moment to catch his breath.

He couldn’t find his orange shirt for the annual Truth and Reconciliation Day Walk, but Tla-o-qui-aht gave him a new one, which he tucked in his jacket like a scarf.

Curley spent 15 years as a ‘student’ at Christie Indian Residential School on nearby Meares Island. He says it wasn’t the type of place you went to get into university.

“A lot of my friends committed suicide because of that,” said Curley. “There were a lot of my friends who I knew got abused every day; all of us did one way or another. It was constant. We didn’t have much freedom as a child growing up.”

It has been 10 years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC)

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