Nuxalk Chief Sam Schooner visited local schools to speak to students about National Day for Truth and Reconciliation day, Sept. 30.
“I talked about what our people went through,” Schooner said. “It was pretty tough. It’s tough to talk about because most of our parents went but never spoke about it.”
His father drank quite a bit and his parents did not know how to show love, he added.
“I didn’t know where that was coming from and it was a hard subject to talk about.”
Schooner said he encouraged the students to be kind, give their parents and grandparents a hug, especially on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
“It’s good that the national day has come out, but it brings back a lot of not-so-great memories. It’s good government recognizes it and has a day. Everybody in their family has been effected in some way or another.”
There was a walk in the community to commemorate the survivors.
“We have a plaque at Acwsalcta School honouring the survivors,” he said. “It was installed before I was chief.”
After going without a chief adminstrative officer since the end of January 2023, a new one has been hired.
Charles Nelson started on the job Tuesday, Oct. 3.
“He’s a Nuxalk member, “ Schooner said. “He was working in Vancouver for the Musqueam as a health director. He saw the post and decided it was time to come home.”
Being a remote and isolated community makes it challenging to hire chief administrative officers, Schooner said.
“I’m glad we got Charles. We are going to work on some other areas - potentially human resources. I’m not sure how that’s going to look yet, but we need to get another assistant.”
The nation’s population, including members living off-reserve, is shy of 2,000 people, he noted, adding housing continues to be a major issue.
“We desperately need housing and are running out of reserve land. We have less than 30 lots left and our housing needs are 300 just for our on-reserve population.”
Even if they attract qualified people to come and work for the nation, finding them housing is an issue, he added.
“That makes it very difficult too.”
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