An arsonist burned down the St. Theresa Point First Nation’s church earlier this year.

“Everything that we do during our lives is part of that church, our church,” said Marie Wood, former chief of the Oji-Cree community, said to a reporter who expressed surprise at the indigenous community’s attachment to the Church despite abuse in residential schools.

“I keep telling the people, it’s not God that did this to you,” Wood said. “It was the people that worked in there…. It’s not God.”