Moving beyond boarding schools event at Alaska Native Heritage Center

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - A summit was held on Friday to continue the healing of former Alaska Native boarding school students and their families after the abuse and cultural harms they endured.

The event was held at the Alaska Native Heritage Center to give a space for indigenous groups and historians to gather and provide support for families impacted by the tragedies.

Panels were held to discuss the long and hard work that has been done to face that trauma and to keep moving forward.

Panelist Shaagunn Astaa said, “I’ve been involved with returning bodies from mental institutions and sanitariums. So I have expertise in that area. And I could help them. And I’ve seen healing occur from having their loved ones brought home with dignity, respect, and honor.”

Other panels focused on addressing the work that still needs to be done on current issues that native groups still face today.

Benjamin Jacuk, the Director of Indigenous Research at the Alaska Native Heritage Center, said, “What are the structures that seem to still seem to hold Alaska Native peoples down? A big part of that is destruction of identity amongst many other things that correlate and stretch out, and things like missing more indigenous peoples, the houseless crisis here in Anchorage.”

Organizers say the federal grant for holding this summit was recently cut off, but the event commenced.

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