Connie Walker - Surviving St Michael's

Explore: A Canadian Geographic podcast

Trigger warning: This podcast contains discussions about the abuse of children and may not be appropriate for all listeners.

“Who has been held accountable for the things that have been done to us? Nobody.”

- a survivor of St Michael's Residential School

Investigative journalist Connie Walker joins us on Explore to talk about her new Spotify podcast series, Stolen: Surviving St Michael's (episode six drops the same day as this interview).

It's the story of her late father's experience of abuse as a First Nations child at St Michael's Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan. And then the beating he later gave as an adult to the priest who assaulted there, and Connie Walker's own quest to find that priest and seek justice.

Surviving St Michael's is an incredibly powerful, personal and accessible account of the impacts of the Residential School system, and the painful echoes it has through the generations.

Connie Walker says, "it's changed the way I think about my life."

At its essence, Walker's podcast series, and our conversation, focuses on why we've heard so much about the brutal experiences of survivors of residential schools, but there has been so little effort to bring those who carried out that abuse to account.

There is a hotline for Survivors of Residential Schools and their family members, available 24-hours a day for anyone experiencing pain or distress as a result of Residential School experiences: 1-800-721-0066