(Reuters] – Some members of the Native Community call on Prince Charles and Camilla, Britain’s Prince Charles, to recognize the damages colonization caused to First Nations people.

The couple, who are royals in Canada, will be arriving in St. Johns on Tuesday for a three-day tour that includes stops in Ottawa as well as the Northwest Territories. It will focus on reconciliation with Native peoples and climate changes.

Mary Teegee (executive director for child and family services at Carrier Sekani Family Services, British Columbia) spoke out to Reuters about the impact of colonization and residential schools and the loss lands.

Teegee stated that “they also need to understand that they’re not the leaders of our nation”, and that acknowledging the damage of colonization is more than a simple apology. 

Canada became a British colony in 1867. However, Canada is still a member the British Empire. The monarch appointed a governor-general.

It was done under the cover of Canada’s federal government and the crown. Some 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their homes and placed in residential schools run by Christians between 1831-1896.

This policy has been described as cultural genocide by some. Since the 2021 discovery of remains from more than 200 children, buried in areas unmarked on the grounds at a school in B.C., this microscope has focused attention on survivors’ stories of brutal, paramilitary-like conditions.

CBC News on Monday quoted Cassidy Caron, the president of the Métis National Council, an indigenous group, as saying Queen Elizabeth should apologize to the residential school survivors.

Caron stated that she will deliver the message to Charles, the British heir to the throne and Camilla when they meet during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations to mark the queen’s seventy-year tenure on the throne.

“DISTANT ALIEEN THING”

Jess Housty is a community organizer in B.C. for Heiltsuk Nation. She said she does not care about the visit but it was hard to forget the colonial past as well as the bad relations over the centuries.

Housty stated that the monarchy was “this distant alien entity that feels really insignificant in my life, work and personal relationships.”

An opinion poll https://angusreid.org/canada-constitutional-monarchy-queen-elizabeth released by the Angus Reid research group in April shows support among Canadians to abolish the country’s constitutional monarchy rising, with about 51% saying it should disappear in coming generations, up from 45% in January 2020.

Housty admitted that not everyone in her area supported the monarchy. However, she acknowledged that some people were thrilled when Prince William of Great Britain and Kate visited her neighborhood in 2016.

This week’s excitement was evident once more, according to St. John Mayor Danny Breen. Breen told Reuters that Newfoundland and Labrador looks forward to Charles and Camilla arriving.

Breen stated, “People respect the queen and the family.”