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Prime Minister Harper's apology to aboriginals was very touching and I take my hat off to the aboriginals who were in the House at the ceremony for being very gracious in their reply to the speech from the Government of Canada.

Everyone I talked to was very pleased at the way the ceremony went. The government showed true respect by dedicating the whole House session of the day to the ceremonies. It was touching.

Everyone thought with the millions paid out in the residential school deal and the government's apology it would close the deal and end that whole chapter.

But I guess not, because now they are going to start, (or it's already started) the Truth and Reconciliation Commission June 1. This means staff and offices opening up all over the country. Why? To listen to complaints and abuses in residential schools.

They will criss-cross the country and staff and lawyers will make millions while the poor residential school victims will lose in the end because the residential victim will have to prove the abuse and most abusers are no doubt all dead by now. The Canadian people are going to get fed up, wondering when it is going to end because it is their tax money paying for all that.

Anyhow, I like what one aboriginal wrote from Vancouver. He said it is generally taboo for residential survivors to speak about their good experiences because they don't want to play down the more common stories of abuse. They feel pressure to be quiet, plus the media is only interested in sensationalism. But with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission you will hear the good and the bad.

My brother John was two-and-a-half-years-old, I was five and my older sister Alice was eight when our mother died. It was fall so Dad put us on the last steam boat to distributor and shipped us to Fort Providence Convent.

We spent about 10 years there, coming home for holidays in the summer after dad got married again.

Those ten years in the convent were my happiest childhood years. We learned to make our own dresses and how to knit and sew crafts like beads, horse hair and quills.

We also did chores, set up rabbit snares, had picnics, learned all about gardening and ate a lot of beans and fish and porridge for solid food. We used lard for butter and apple sauce. I still love lard on my bread sometimes and we learned how to make soap for laundry.

The missions were poor and had to make do with whatever. In wintertime they made slides for us and we loved going sleigh riding, sitting on hay with the big oxen pulling the sleighs on our way to a picnic. Boys played hockey and baseball.

They say when you grow up without love you are bitter and sad all your life. I can never, ever remember love or hugs growing up. Not with a stepmother and nuns.

I sometimes wonder why in my adult life I am full of love for my fellow man. All I can say is the nuns were mostly kind. There was only one nun we didn't like. As that aboriginal writer said, we cannot forever dwell on the past. We must move forward and create a good future for today.

There will be a lot of arguments and bitter memories. Life is so short. Don't waste it. Try to flush out all the bitterness. Seek help. There is a lot of help out there for everything. Many people blame alcohol.

Try a punching bag instead. Let off some steam. Anyhow, the papers will be full of articles from people and pros and cons. There is the good and the bad in everything in life.

The worst sin is abusing children. Children have been abused ever since the world began and it still goes on today under our noses.

It will continue until we have the guts to do what we should do.

- Cece Hodgson-McCauley is the founding chief of the Inuvik Dene band and will remain honourary chief for life. She can be reached at fax (867) 587-3003 or by phone (867) 587-3037.