Now, we teach our language without being hit.
Wabasca and Desmarais area Elders and Mistassiniy School mentors sat side by side at a long table set up in the front of the school’s gymnasium Sept. 29, the gymnasium awash in the orange glow of about 100 dressed for Orange Shirt Day.
The mentors and students at the school from Grade 7- 12 each took their turn presenting research they collected January to June last year on local residential school survivors.
“I’ve heard these stories before because I was raised with my mushum (grandfather) for seven years. I’ve only heard from his side, but he never really wanted to talk about it,” said Mistassiniy School mentor Leander Young. “Some Elders go through so much that they hold it back, they don’t even want to talk about it because it hurt so much.”
In recognition of “Orange Shirt Day – Every Child Matters,” a day meant to recognize the survivors of residential schools, the school mentors officially released Kayas Ayamikamik Acimowina: Old Stories of the Mission.
The 125-page book about the local residential schools was collaboratively researched by students Blade Anderson, Hailey Rathbone, Zach Zabot, Young and written by Mistassiniy lead mentor Darrell “Osaw Maskwa” Anderson.
“We kids were in there when they were seven years old. Well, I was five years old when I was taken,” said Elder Martha Beaver, about being taken to the mission.
Beaver spent five and a half years in the residential school, and during that time she was unable to speak to her two brothers who were also attending the school, or even her father, who worked at the mission.
Beaver said for a long time she was ashamed of being Native, and she has “no doubt” it was due to her experience in the residential schools. She also said she experienced “all different kind of abuse” while in the mission, and it stays with her to this day.
“I have scars. I can heal. My bruises go away. But when it hurts here in your heart…” she said. “I know after 52 years there are times where we are taken right back to square one, and then we have to bring ourselves back up. But at least we learn, and we know these things so we can help another person.”
“Some Elders would cry talking about it. It was kind of sad and emotional, sometimes, not all the time. Not all the Elders went through bad stuff,” Young said about interviewing the Elders.
Although they changed forms and “border” quotas over the years, there were two main residential schools in the Wabasca/Desmarais area between 1894 and 1966: St. Martin’s Mission in Desmarais and St. John’s Anglican Mission in North Wabasca.
There are 132 pictures throughout the book, which Anderson said come from various community members, Elders and the provincial archives.
In the section about Elder Clemence Anderson’s experiences, she is quoted saying most of her memories were positive from being in the Mission.
“You see I was the youngest of the girls in family and I used to see nuns and priest hitting my brothers and sisters and I did not want to get the same so I tended to learn a little faster because from what happened to my older siblings (sic),” Anderson is quoted as saying.
She also said at Christmas the nuns and priests would eat their fish cooked in a “fancier” manner than the children’s.
“I knew because many of us had to serve them for suppers,” she stated. “We were there servants, like royalty they ate and the students were like the slaves except at Christmas (sic).”
Elder Albert Auger is quoted in the book saying if the children said even a few words of Cree they would get hit, or get soap put in their mouths. He also spoke about the abuse suffered by children.
“Some of us boys and girls, including me, were sexually assaulted by the priests, nuns and older boys which took away our pride and made us bitter and angry,” he said. “It led some of us to drinking for many years throughout our lives to try and cope with hardships faced in the Mission.”
Beaver is quoted that there were not many good memories at the Mission, and the nuns would put white powder in her hair to “eliminate the bugs even though I had none.”
“They denied us our native tongue they thought we were savages that needed to be cleaned and washed and taught the English language,” she said.
Young said during his time in school and growing up, he never saw a book about the residential school history locally.
“We don’t learn it. We don’t study it. We learn all the other stuff, but how come we don’t learn about this stuff when it’s our culture?” he said. “Thanks to us writing this book, it will be taught in Cree classes and in schools across Alberta.”
Young added he was inspired to work on the project because he did not want the Elders’ stories to disappear when they passed on.
“It’s not like we can have a second chance once they’re all gone,” he said.
“Just yesterday and Elder passed away, and that’s one of the Elders we didn’t even get to interview. That’s stories lost right there. That’s why I jumped on the project as fast as I could.”
Darrell Anderson said he is “extremely proud of the kids” and also of the Elders who shared their stories.
He added information on residential schools is being taught in schools more and more, but Old Stories of the Mission contains very unique information.
“By all means, there is general information on residential schools everywhere else. But this particular set of stories is regionally specific to our area, therefore there isn’t anything out there quite like it,” he said. “I think from here on in, not only the youth will have a lot to talk about, because they did it, but the Elders themselves they’ll be proud for being part of this research project.”
Copies of Kayas Ayamikamik Acimowina: Old Stories of the Mission are $30 and can be purchased from Darrell at Mistassiniy School. All proceeds from the book go towards the Mistassiniy School mentorship group.
