Victor Chapis says his experience at St. Joseph's Indian Residential School in Thunder Bay, Ont., destroyed his self confidence — but he's starting to see a shift in the next generation as more people in his community embrace their Indigenous culture.

"My own trauma of being in residential school is coming out of there and feeling empty inside, feeling not good enough," said Chapis, an elder from Ginoogaming First Nation in northern Ontario. "Not knowing if I'm welcomed in any store or in the ho…