Stories have been, and always will be, the best way to educate ourselves about the truth.
And how were school officials held accountable? Charles's mom was given a bag of flour every month for the rest of the school year. He lost six toes after seeking protection from the elements in a shed. In 1907, a boy, Charles Cline, ran away after getting beaten for wetting his bed. Kids were tied up so that they wouldn't run away. Girls slept outside on balconies because enrolment was always overcapacity.
At Norway House Indian Residential School, officials fed children rotten food. Her experience is lost history, a story that will remain forever untold. And to tell my mother that her sister had died while attending Towers Island Day School, but she'd not found out until long after Maggie's death. She died having never told her story, other than to remark to one of her granddaughters how sad it had made her when they cut her hair. My grandmother, Sarah Robertson, attended Norway House Indian Residential School in the 1920s and early 1930s. He originally posted the list on Twitter, and repurposed it for CBC Books. Here is a thread of books, thanks to all who listed them over the last week (1/?)- curated this list of books by Indigenous writers about residential schools. There's no excuse not to know the history or its impact. Stories have played, & will continue to play, a role in educating Canadians, young & old, about the terrible legacy of Residential Schools.