“Healing doesn’t happen overnight,” Pettipas said, noting that people can take years to overcome hurt in their lives. But when someone who has been part of that pain says "I’m sorry," that has a powerful impact, he said.

Pettipas, who became archbishop of the northern Alberta diocese in early 2007, admitted he had little familiarity with First Nations people or the legacy of the residential schools until after his appointment. He said the process has been an education for him. He hoped other Canadians would also learn more.

On behalf of the Canadian government, Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered an unqualified apology to former students of Indian residential schools June 11 in the House of Commons.

“To the approximately 80,000 living former students and all family members and communities, the Government of Canada now recognizes that it was wrong to forcibly remove children from their homes, and we apologize for having done this,” Harper said.

He apologized for the assimilation policy that since 1870 aimed to "kill the Indian in the child.”

Harper apologized for how the policy not only separated children from their families, but also from their cultures and traditions, leaving a void in their lives and communities. He apologized for how the schools robbed students of adequate parenting skills, sowing the seeds for problems in subsequent generations.

“We now recognize that far too often these institutions gave rise to abuse or neglect and were inadequately controlled, and we apologize for failing to protect you,” he said. “Not only did you suffer these abuses as children, but as you became parents, you were powerless to protect your own children from suffering the same experience, and for this we are sorry.”

The three opposition party leaders followed Harper with detailed apologies, laced with specific examples of abuse and deprivation at the schools run primarily by Anglican, United and Presbyterian Churches, and Roman Catholic dioceses and religious orders.

Leaders of Canada’s First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities, and both the oldest and the youngest residential schools survivors, sat in a circle in the centre of the historic chamber while aboriginal peoples from across Canada packed the galleries. Many were in tears during the historic occasion.

“What happened today signifies a new dawn in the relationship between us and the rest of Canada,” said Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine. “We are and always have been an indispensable part of the Canadian identity. Our peoples, our history and our present being are the essence of Canada. The attempts to erase our identities hurt us deeply, but it also hurt all Canadians and impoverished the character of this nation.”

For some residential school survivors, the moment was bittersweet.

“The state has apologized,” said Katherine Sorbey of Mi'kmaq First Nation in Restigouche, Que. “The Canadian government has apologized. The Pope hasn’t has he?”

A baptized Catholic, Sorbey said she stopped going to church in the 1990s when she became overwhelmed with her recollections of her residential schools experience.

“It also affects the spirit,” she said. “Now I’m going to go back to church which I neglected since the 1990s.”

“I have mixed feelings, but I have a lot of hope,” said Agnes Mills, a survivor of an Anglican residential school in the Yukon.

The last stage of the settlement agreement, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, is preparing to hold cross-country hearings and present its findings in 2013. Survivors will be able to share their stories. Catholic leaders also plan to take part, and it is hoped that some of the positive stories of the schools will also be told. The commission will also, they hope, hear from the religious sisters and brothers and priests who gave their lives in the service of natives peoples.