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Near the head of a crowd that stretched almost one kilometre walked Sam George, a survivor.

George, one of the last living members of his cohort in St. Paul’s Residential School in North Vancouver, walked through downtown Vancouver Sunday with help from a cane and the support of tens of thousands of people.

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It was the city’s second Walk for Reconciliation, a march intended to foster better relationships between Indigenous peoples and other Canadians.

George wore a T-shirt that read “They tried to bury us, but they did not know we were the seeds.”

He explained its meaning.

“They tried to change us, get rid of our customs and languages and change us into the non-natives — the white people. It was beaten into us in whatever way they could. But we all (still) had it deep down,” he said.

“We had to reawaken it. Some of us, like myself, were ashamed of who we were. But then we brought it out and held it up.”

When asked what it meant to see so many people come out to the march, George turned his face and went silent. Asked after a long pause if he felt touched, he nodded, unable to speak.