The Hear Our Voices: Michel People and Residential Schools exhibit is back on display at St. Albert’s Little White School, bringing testimony, photographs and testimony-based media from former Michel Band members to the city as Canadians prepare for Orange Shirt Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30.
Survivors’ stories at the forefront
The presentation centres on video accounts by dozens of former Michel Band members and their descendants. Those first-person testimonies document experiences at institutions such as the Youville residential school, where survivors recount harsh treatment, loss of language and difficult living conditions.
“To me, it was hell,” said Ernie Callihoo, now 90 and living in Sturgeon County, as featured in the exhibit.
Friends of Michel Society organised the exhibit to let survivors tell their stories in their own words, said Maureen Callihoo, a society board member and daughter of Ernie Callihoo. The material also includes photographs that were added when the exhibit returned to the Little White School earlier this year; the exhibit originally premiered in St. Albert in 2024.
Local context and family impacts
For many families, the exhibit has been a prompt for difficult conversations. Maureen Callihoo said the display helped her father find some measure of peace and gave his children a better understanding of why their parents behaved as they did. She also described how survivors often suppressed memories for decades and only began speaking openly about those experiences more recently.
Musée Héritage Museum curator Martin Bierens noted St. Albert’s particular connection to the residential school system, where local institutions played a role in the broader federal policy that removed Indigenous children from their communities.
Why it matters this week
The exhibit’s return coincides with a national moment of reflection. Orange Shirt Day and the federally designated National Day for Truth and Reconciliation provide an annual opportunity for Canadians to learn more about the impact of residential schools — institutions that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission found were part of a systematic, government-sponsored attempt to eradicate Indigenous culture and that constituted cultural genocide.
National figures cited in the exhibit and public discussion note that more than 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children attended residential schools. Many were forbidden to speak their languages or follow cultural practices and were subjected to physical, verbal and sexual abuse; thousands died while at the schools.
- Format: video testimonies and photographs from former Michel Band members and descendants
- Organiser: Friends of Michel Society
- Venue: Little White School, St. Albert
- Background: exhibit premiered in 2024 and returned earlier in 2026 with new material
The exhibit is one of several free opportunities in St. Albert for residents to engage with Truth and Reconciliation activities on Sept. 30. Local organisers have emphasised accessible, survivor-centred programming that prioritises listening and learning.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Exhibit name | Hear Our Voices: Michel People and Residential Schools |
| Organiser | Friends of Michel Society |
| Location | Little White School, St. Albert |
| Original premiere | 2024 |
| Return to St. Albert | Earlier in 2026 (with additional photos) |
What residents should know
St. Albert’s role in residential school history means the exhibit is not only a local remembrance but also a prompt for civic reflection. For survivors and families such as the Callihoos, public displays of testimony are helping shape personal healing as well as broader public understanding.
Organisers say the emphasis remains on listening to survivors’ voices, preserving their accounts and creating space in the community to acknowledge the lasting consequences of the residential school system.
As St. Albert marks Orange Shirt Day, the presence of Hear Our Voices at the Little White School serves as a tangible reminder that the stories of residential school survivors are embedded in the region’s recent history and continue to inform community conversations about reconciliation.
