Residential and Day School Resources
Wellness Supports
Learning about residential and day schools can be difficult and, in some cases, triggering. You are encouraged to access support if you need it.
If you are Indigenous, the following supports are available:​
National Indian Residential School Crisis Line
The support line provides crisis counselling and emotional support for survivors and intergenerational survivors 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Telephone (toll-free): 1-866-925-4419
First Nations and Inuit Hope for Wellness Helpline
The Hope for Wellness Help Line offers immediate help to all Indigenous peoples across Canada. It is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for counselling and crisis intervention.
Telephone (toll-free): 1-855-242-3310
Online chat: www.hopeforwellness.com
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Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support Program
This program provides mental health and emotional support services to eligible residential schools survivors and their families. There are Resolution Health Support Workers across the North. To access the services of one of these workers, contact the regional office of the support program:
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Telephone (toll-free): 1-800-464-8106
Teletypewriter: 1-800-267-1245 (Health Canada)
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Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS)
The Indian Residential School Survivors Society operates a 24-hour crisis line to support survivors and families across British Columbia and beyond. Survivors can also access support as part of the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. The crisis line will remain open during the winter holidays.
Telephone (toll-free): 1-800-721-0066
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Other supports include:
The NWT Helpline offers free, confidential support to residents of the NWT, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The helpline also has an option for follow-up calls with a Care Coach. Services are available in English and French, with translation services provided for all official languages of the NWT.
Telephone (toll-free): 811 or 1-844-259-1793.
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NWT Community Counselling Program
The Community Counselling Program helps people deal with a variety of issues including family violence, mental health issues, and addictions. It is available free of charge to every NWT resident, in every region of the NWT. Counsellors live in 19 communities. In the other 16 communities, counsellors provide phone support, in-person counselling on a fly-in basis, and through telehealth.
Telephone: 1-867-767-9061
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Learn More About Residential and Day Schools in the NWT
Northern Memoirs/Biographies
The richest sources about residential and day schools in the NWT are Survivors’ first-hand accounts. Click on the photos for more information about these books.
Other memoirs and biographies include:
Cockey, Cathy, ed. Paulatuuq Oral History Project: Inuvialuit Elders Share Their Stories. Inuvik, NWT: Parks Canada, 2004.
Thrasher, Tommy T. Footprints to the Stars: The Story of My Life, These Are the Footprints of My Ancestors That I Followed, If You Follow Them Too, You will Make It. Inuvik, NWT: Boreal Books, 2009.
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Historical Publications about Northern Residential Schools
Special Issue on Education in the Territorial North.
Crystal Gail Fraser and Jessica Dunkin, “‘This Year Book...has been entirely produced by staff and students’: Indigenous Youth, Indian Schooling, and Historical Production in the Northwest Territories, 1959-71” (2023)
Other Resources
Living Well Together
​Living Well Together is a self-directed and publicly available training program developed by the Government of the Northwest Territories to fulfill Call to Action 57. The training is provided in two series: The Truth series (Modules 2-5), which focuses on awareness about colonization, residential schools and Indigenous, non-Indigenous relations, and the Reconciliation series (Modules 6-8), which focuses on developing cultural sensitivity and the practice of reconciliation.
Produced by the NWT Archives, this report provides “a fully annotated and referenced chronology of schools, residences and other western educational institutions in the NWT.” The NWT Archives is continuing to update this resource. The link above is for version three of the report, which was published in 2023.
The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation has created a National Student Memorial to remember the children who died while institutionalized at residential schools. This page has information about northern residential schools.
Learn More About Residential and Day Schools in Canada
Produced by Canadian Geographic with support from the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, this Google Earth Voyager story weaves photographs and video links with firsthand accounts from residential school survivors.
In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada identified 94 calls to action to “redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation.” The Yellowhead Institute publishes annual accountability reports to document progress (or a lack thereof) on the 94 calls to action.
The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) was established by Order in Council on August 26, 1991. In 1996, the Commission submitted the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. The RCAP was mandated to investigate and propose solutions to the challenges affecting the relationship between Indigenous peoples (First Nations, Inuit, Métis Nation), the Canadian government, and Canadian society as a whole.
The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) is a place of learning and dialogue where the truths of Residential School Survivors, families, and communities are honored and kept safe for future generations. The NCTR educates Canadians on the profound injustices inflicted on First Nations, Inuit, and the Métis Nation by the forced removal of children to attend residential schools and the widespread abuse suffered in those schools.
The Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (IRSHDC) at the University of British Columbia (UBC) addresses the colonial impacts of Residential Schools and other policies imposed by the Canadian government on Indigenous Peoples, and ensures that this history is acknowledged, examined and understood within the UBC community. The Centre helps provide access to records and information for Survivors and Intergenerational Survivors of the Residential School system.
The Independent Special Interlocutor was appointed to take part in conversations with Survivors, Indigenous families, and communities who are leading the Sacred work of recovering the missing children and unmarked burials. Their mandate involves speaking directly with those leading search and recovery work and with governments, churches, and other individuals and organizations to help identify and remove existing barriers. The Office of the Independent Special Interlocutor was established to support the work of the Special Interlocutor over her two-year Mandate. It assists Survivors and communities in various ways, including connecting them to funding programs, technical experts, and record holders.
Films
Podcasts
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