One day Muinji'j comes home from school upset. She tells her grandparents that they have been talking about the residential schools and what happened to the children in these schools. However, when she tried to tell her teacher what her grandparents had told her she refused to listen. So her Nana tells her that she will tell her the story of the Mi'kmaw people and what happened to them regarding the residential schools.
In what is now called Nova Scotia, a people called the Mi'kmaq lived in wigwams and travelled using canoes made from the trees. They called their land Mi'kma'ki. From the animals they hunted, they got their food and their clothing. They wasted nothing, giving thanks for the Earth's gifts by leaving dried tobacco on the land. The Mi'kmaq especially cherished their children because they were the knowledge keepers who learned from the stories the Elders told.
The Elders taught them to respect the land and water, that they were connected to the people of the past and the future and that their long braids "held the teachings of their people and that they would give them strength."
When new people came to their land, the Mi'kmaq welcomed them, traded with them, explored their land with them. The two peoples made promises to share the land. However, with the passage of time, the new people forgot what they had learned from the Mi'kmaq about the land. They called the land Nova Scotia and they decided the land belonged to them.
Eventually the Mi'kmaq were displaced from their lands, pushed onto smaller pieces. Mi'kma'ki was now Nova Scotia, part of a new country called Canada.
Since the Mi'kmaq thought, talked and dressed differently, the new people decided to force the Mi'kmaq to change. They were forced to move to new lands called reservations. Despite this, the Mi'kmaq refused to abandon their traditions and culture. They were then told that they could not leave their communities, practice their traditions nor have large gatherings, otherwise they would be sent to jail. To counter this resistance, the new people decided they would build schools and force the Mi'kmaq children to attend them. This would allow them to learn the "Canadian way of life".
In Nova Scotia, Mi'kmaq children attended Shubenacadie Residential School, which overlooked the Shubenacadie River. The school was a Catholic residential school that accepted children from all over Eastern Canada. It was run by Catholic priests and nuns. At the schools, the children had their braids cut, their clothes thrown away and they were forbidden to speak in their own language.
Muinji'j notes that only her great-grandmother can speak a language she does not understand. Her grandfather tells her Kiju speaks Mi'kmaq which is the name of their language. Muinji'j's grandparents explain to her what happened at the schools and how their beliefs, culture and traditions were forgotten by the children who attended the schools.
Discussion
Muinji'j Asks Why tells the story of the Mi'kmaq and the Shubenacadie Residential School. The Shubenacadie Residential School was one of many residential schools used to remove Indigenous children from the influence of their families and communities, destroying their culture and traditions and the ability to speak their own languages. The Shubenacadie Residential school, located in the Sipekni’katik district of Mi’kma’ki, was open from 1930 to 1967 and was the only residential school in the Maritimes. It was funded by the government of Canada, managed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Halifax and later the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and staffed by the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. The school was demolished in 1986.
The purpose of the school, like other residential schools was to suppress Indigenous culture and have the children conform to European culture. Children from the Mi'kmaq and Wolastoqiyik were forced to attend despite objections from parents and Indigenous leaders. They endured harsh conditions, punishment, physical and sexual abuse and forced labour. Due to incomplete records, it is not entirely possible to determine all those who attended the school.
Shanika MacEachern, a Mi'kmaw woman and Native Student Advisor with Annapolis Valley Centre for Education in collaboration with Breighlynn (Muinji'j) MacEachern, a grade 3 student and young Mi'kmaq have crafted a well-written account of the Mi'kmaq experience with Canada's residential school system.
Muinji'j's grandparents explain to her what happened to their people with the coming of the white Europeans to Atlantic Canada, how their traditions were made illegal and they were confined to reservations their experiences with the residential school system which broke apart families and destroyed traditional beliefs and practices, and how the Mi'kmaq now live by Etuapmumk, or "'two-eyed seeing': one eye for the Mi'kmaw ways and one for the Canadian ways. We as L'nu understand the Canadian ways and accept them as part of our lives, but we also hold strong to our traditions and culture." The authors have written in a honest, forthright manner, with these events portrayed by the richly coloured digital art of Zeta Paul.
Muinji'j AsksWhy is highly recommended as a resource for young readers to learn about the Mi'kmaq, and the residential school experience.
For more information on the Shubenacadie Residential School.
Book Details:
Muinji'j Asks Why by Muinji'j and Shanika MacEachern
Halifax, N.S.: Nimbus Publishing Ltd. 2022
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