Hi, I'm Leah Simone Bowen, the host of CBC's podcast playlist. Every week we

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Before we start, this is a podcast about Canada's Indian residential schools and it

contains descriptions of sexual violence, suicide and abuse. If you need support,

you can find information about where to turn for help at cbc.ca slash keeper

island. Richard Thomas died in 1966, but the death of a child at a residential

school isn't a thing of the past. It travels like ripples over water, touching

generations. Even though he never met his uncle Richard, John Thomas was hurt

by his death too. John is Belvies son. He runs a firewood business from his home at

the Halt First Nation. He's in his late 40s.

Although I didn't go to residential school, it's affected my life in just

tremendous ways. Growing up with my mom was extremely difficult. The first 15 years

of my life, she was really an active alcoholic and she didn't do any healing

around her experiences at residential schools. A lot of the traumas that she

suffered were then infected upon her children in ways. It was difficult, right?

It turned me into an alcoholic. Belvies worked at a school as a teacher's aid,

but the pain she suffered at Cuper Island clouded the rest of her life. She married

...