December 16, 2025

Check against delivery

I am truly grateful to share this moment with you—reflecting together on the healing journey of residential school Survivors, including many among you here today.

Some of you have walked alongside me for many years on the path toward reconciliation. Others will bring fresh perspectives that I look forward to hearing.

Let me begin with a question: Is healing only about mending past wounds?

Or is it also about discovering something within ourselves—something transformative for the future?

Over the past decade, healing has taken root across Canada—both collectively and personally.

And it began with truth.

Since Survivors’ stories were voiced and amplified through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, I have seen Canadians show greater compassion and support.

We are becoming more inclusive in how we see our history—and how we teach it to future generations.

We have witnessed historic moments, the most recent being the return of Indigenous cultural artefacts from the Vatican.

This is a meaningful step forward on our path toward reconciliation.

These items were separated from their communities for far too long. But now, they have finally come home—and they will help us continue our healing together.

I feel a new relationship has taken root in our society.

It’s not perfect. It’s not fast enough.

But I believe we have begun to heal—together.

When I became governor general, the discovery of children’s graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia had just shaken the country.

I felt Canadians were ready to continue the work.

Truth and compassion had started to build trust.

And many Survivors told me they felt a glimmer of comfort—a ray of hope.

Healing, on a personal level, can mean many things.

Trauma is deeply complex. Intergenerational trauma, even more so.

And too often, our health services and law enforcement aren’t fully equipped to respond in ways that truly promote healing.

I have met numerous Survivors, their families and their communities.

Your courage and your resolve to move forward despite immense challenges never cease to move me.

I have also met many who support your healing. There is phenomenal work being done across the country.

Earlier this year in Iqaluit, Nunavut, I sat with health practitioners, community workers, cultural healers and caretakers.

We discussed mental health and the practices that work in their community.

Every person in that room had lost at least one family member to suicide.

The pain is profound. And so is the need for support that is rooted in Indigenous cultures.

Because one truth emerges from all the testimonies I’ve heard:

The most efficient, most profound path to healing is through culture.

Healing is most powerful when people reconnect with who they are—with their traditions, language, values and shared history.

For Inuit, cultural therapy can be spending time on the land, fishing, hunting for our food or lighting the qulliq on special occasions.

Culture is a way of life that brings comfort and pride in one’s identity.

That’s why community-based workshops and peer support bring so much relief—because the help comes from someone who understands who you are.

And when that person has lived through similar experiences of trauma, addiction or grief, the connection is deeply impactful.

Healing and wellness begin at home. With belonging.

And that brings me back to my initial question—about discovering something within ourselves.

When we reconnect with our culture, we uncover the inner strength to heal.

We find the courage to seek peace—and to build a better life for the future.

As a country, we must do more to support the healing of Survivors and their families.

Not simply by sending non-Indigenous professionals or by providing funding alone.

We need to train more Indigenous people within their own communities—so they can offer support that truly resonates within their culture.

We need services like drop-in counselling—support that’s available when people need it, not just by appointment.

And we need services tailored to remote communities, like mobile mental health teams that meet people where they are.

Let Indigenous peoples reshape their own paths to healing.

Let us redefine, in Indigenous terms, what it means to be well.

Today, I am deeply moved when I see young Indigenous people speaking their ancestral languages with pride—when I see them embracing their identity as they are building their careers and a bright future for themselves.

I am one of the people that was very fortunate in my upbringing. When I was growing up in a very small village, we had federal day schools. 

My mother and my grandmother only spoke our language, Inuktitut. My father, who was non-Indigenous, learned the culture and the language when he first went to the Arctic.

When he met my mother, he was able to relate to her in her language.

In federal day school, in our community, we were prohibited from using or speaking our language either on school grounds or in school.

If we were caught speaking our language to our friends, we were punished.

It was not only in residential schools but in these federal day schools that were everywhere across Canada. 

It is no wonder so many do not speak their language. It isn’t their fault.

It is the way the system was run those days, and you have to be proud of who you are. 

I try to speak French and have been learning it for 4 years. It is a challenge to try and speak when you are not fully versed in the language. 

Indigenous people lost a lot of their language because of what happened. I always encourage people to speak what they know. 

Every day, I try to learn French and my vocabulary keeps growing. It is the same for any other language: you have to build a vocabulary.

It is important in our communities to try and speak the language as much as we can and in our homes.

That will help strengthen our ability to bring back our Indigenous languages.

It reminds us that no matter what we endured, no matter how much was taken from us—we are still here.

There is strength within our cultures—and we can return to it in times of difficulty.

Healing is not only about mending past wounds.

It is about finding the inner peace and inner strength to transform our future.

This is my hope for the next 10 years and beyond: that Survivors, and all those who have suffered, continue to heal as we move forward on the path to reconciliation.

Thank you for being part of this conversation.