By Cheryl Jahn

truth and reconciliation

First-ever gathering of Lejac survivors

Jun 27, 2025 | 1:45 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – It was one of the largest gatherings of residential school survivors. One of whom is Henry Alexander of the Takla Nation, a survivor of the Lejac Residential School.

“I was in residential school until it was torn down,” says Henry Alexander of the Takla First Nation. “I never went home because where I lived in Takla Lake, there’s no road, no way to get home. So I stayed in the residential school for eleven years of my life.”

Sandra Tom can point to where everything came to be at Lejac. She was six years old and stayed there until 1973.

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“It’s exciting for me to come here and meet. It’s just like a family reunion, and to see different people we’ve never seen for a long time and then never hear from them for a long time.”

And for many, this is a healing process. And for many, the stories are epic.

“It brings people together,” says Robert Michell, Chief of the Stellat’en First Nation. “It allows them to talk to each other and remind us that we’re not alone, that many people here are a part of that system. And so with the release of the 215 that happened in Kamloops, that really opened up in the minds of people, saying we need to do something also. And this is a result of it bringing people as much, people as we can together.”

“That is a part of my healing for me,” says Alexander. “And some of my friends are all gone. And this is something great for the older residential survivors. I think is tough knowledge for many people to hear the word reunion. I met so many friends today.”

But this is the first of its kind.

“It may be bigger next year because of the fact that people’s word of mouth, and like I said, unfortunately, a lot of the people that are not here unfortunately passed because of what happened in Lejac,” said Michell. For those like Sandra Tom, Henry Alexander, Robert Michell and many, many others, this is a historic day.