Canada must fund native language and culture programs to help rebuild the sense of identity it destroyed through residential schools, said members of the aboriginal community Wednesday at Queen’s Park during a panel discussion at which several survivors broke down in tears.

“Where is the funding for language programs? Where is the funding for our at-risk youth? Where is the funding that says it’s okay to be who we are?” asked an emotional Kahsenniyo Wilson, a community organizer from Six Nations and one of several panellists asked to discuss how Canada can come to grips with abuses committed in residential schools.

The event was co-hosted by Ontario Lieutenant-Governor David Onley and Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which is studying and raising awareness of the impact of the schools on aboriginals.

There were tears as some recalled the cruelty — one man was abused at the age of 5; a woman was thrown down steel stairs at age 10. All were punished for speaking their own language.

“I’m scarred for life from what happened to me when I was just 5 years old. Can I forgive the guy who did that? I don’t know,” said Barney Williams, an elder from British Columbia. “”But I wish this dialogue had happened 50 years ago; it would have saved lives. A lot of my friends didn’t make 19 years old.”

Residential school survivor Shirley Williams, a professor at Trent University, said “the greatest thing the government can do as penance is to restore the language they destroyed and restore the pride in the culture of First Nations through the education system.”

To Roberta Jamieson, president of the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, reconciliation must start with “making space for indigenous people to be who we are — in your work, in your church, in your political parties.”

“I’ll be blunt,” she said. “It’s in our self-interest as a country not to lose aboriginal ways of learning, our conflict resolution and our ability to live in harmony with the environment. It’s about survival of the globe and our people have the key.”