Sugar Falls: A Residential School Story by David A. Robertson

Sugar Falls is the fictional story of a girl's experience in Canada's residential school system but is based on the experiences of  Cree Elder, Betty Ross, a survivor of Canada's residential schools.

In a local high school, students are given the assignment to talk to an Elder, while considering several questions. Their teacher encourages them to speak with respect, offering tobacco, one of the four sacred medicines. One of the students in the class, Daniel, tells his friend April about having to find an elder to talk about the residential schools. He wonders if April, who is native, knows anyone he can talk to.

As it turns out, April's kokom, grandmother is a survivor. of Canada's residential school system She offers to see if her kokom might be willing to do this. and after speaking with her tells Daniel that she has accepted his request.

The three meet one afternoon in the Round Room, where April's kokom feels safe with its sacred medicines and star blanket. April's kokom wears bright traditional clothing and holds an eagle feather "to honor the past and move forward with courage, honesty and truth." She has never told her story before so Daniel begins by asking her why she had to go to a residential school.

April's kokom, Betsy tells him that she was forced out of her home by her mother at the age of five, after her mother claimed she could no longer take care of her. What she did not know was that her mother was a survivor of the residential school system. This abandonment was horrific for Betsy.

She spent the night underneath a canoe in frigid conditions and was found by a man who took her to his home. He and his wife brought her into their family and cared for her. However, things were soon to change for the worse. To help Betsy, her adoptive father took her to Sugar Falls, so named because of the way the water passes over the rocks. Betsy's father put sacred medicine into the water and it calmed immediately. He told her to remember the relationships to one another, to their traditions and to their ancestors, as a source of strength. 

When they returned home, Betsy was forcibly taken away by the priest to the residential school across the lake from her home. She was vigorously scrubbed by a nun until her skin was red and sore, and had her long hair cut short. In the school, Betsy's day began at six o'clock in the morning with prayers and Mass, breakfast and chores. 

At school Betsy was severely punished if she made mistakes copying out the Bible in Latin, and she and the other students were subjected to sexual abuse by the priest. They were also brutally punished if they were caught speaking Cree. Betsy and her friend Flora desperately wanted to escape the school and return home. For Betsy, her home, which she could see from the windows of the residential school, was just across the lake. Her friend Flora, unable to cope with the abuse any longer, decided to try to swim the lake in an attempt to flee the school and drowned.

After Flora's death, Betsy had only anger left. She was angered by the priest whom Flora had been running away from, preaching at Flora's funeral. Betsy also attempted to flee the residential school, she was pulled out of the water by a nun. After this unsuccessful attempt, she remembered the promise to her father to "listen to the sound of the drum of our hearts beating in unison." From this she gained the inner strength to survive the horrors of the residential school.

Discussion

Sugar Falls is the fictional retelling of the real life experiences of Betty Ross, Elder from Cross Lake First Nation. Ross began attending St. Joseph's Residential School in Pimicikamak First Nation when she was only eight years old. She suffered terrible abuse, even being kicked in the head by a nun (the incident is portrayed in Sugar Falls) that resulted in the loss of hearing in her left ear. Ross later attended Assiniboia Residential School in 1960.

The 10th anniversary edition of Robertson's telling of Betty Ross's story highlights the resiliency, strength and character of Betty Ross, qualities even more impressive considering she was a child at the time. This comic format also highlights the abuse Indigenous children experienced, informing non-Indigenous readers in a very real and graphic way. Sugar Falls helps non-Indigenous readers comprehend in some way, the impact the residential schools had on Indigenous children and the inter-generational trauma that they experienced. Ross was abandoned by her own mother, also a residential school survivor, when she was only five years old. Betty also experienced difficulties in her own life post-residential school. She married and had four children, but admitted she did not know how to parent as she had no family experience to draw upon.

Sugar Falls is a welcome addition to the Canadian Indigenous literature about the residential school system. Truth in the form of stories must come before reconciliation. The stories and experiences of Canada's First Nations peoples must be told.Sugar Falls is one such resource that does exactly that.

Book Details:

Sugar Falls: A Residential School by David A. Robertson
Winnipeg, Manitoba: HighWater Press      2021
40 pp.