The Scarf and The Butterfly: a graphic memoir of hope and healing by Monica Ittusardjuat

The Scarf and The Butterfly is a short graphic memoir of Monica Ittusardjuat's life, exploring how the residential school experience impacted her life and her identity as Inuit.

The memoir opens with a memory of Monica and her friends, Umik, Ilupaalik, and Akittiq out for a walk to catch butterflies. Monica is wearing a beautiful scarf her mother gave her before going into the hospital. During their walk, Monica lost her scarf but she was able to find it. This was Monica's life before she was taken away to attend the residential school at Chesterfield Inlet.

Monica was born prematurely in an iglu at her family's winter camp at Akkimaniq on the western side of Baffin Island. Because her mother was very ill and in danger of dying, Monica's aunt took her for a time. Her mother recovered and Monica was reunited with her family.

Monica's family lived a subsistence way of life along with her two uncles, Mamattiaq and Tattiggat and their families. The evening was a time to relax and listen to hunting stories and legends, and play traditional games. In the spring, they traveled from one camp to the next, hunting and fishing. Summer saw the families hunt caribou, walrus, beluga, and seal.

Monica was sent to residential schools beginning in 1958, entering the Qallunaaq world. She returned home in the spring of 1969 after having attended three residential schools in Chesterfield, NWT, and in Churchill and Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her experiences at these residential schools changed Monica.

She married a residential school survivor and the marriage was violent and dysfunctional. Their children witnessed many horrible things. Later on, Monica would discover that her husband had been abused. Like her, he has also experienced "the loss of culture and spirituality." So like many other Inuit, Monica set out on a personal journey to reclaim her culture and her identity, a process that continues today.

Discussion

The Scarf and the Butterfly focuses on the effects of the residential school experience, rather than the actual events that took place during the author's time at the various schools. It is memoir of the journey to healing and hope. Monica writes that her healing journey began when her granddaughter, Grace turned six-years-old. Witnessing Grace's free spirit and happiness, made Monica remember that she was once like this before attending school. She realized some of what she had lost and this caused her to grieve.

Monica explains how being sent to a residential school, far away from her family, affected her mother and their relationship. Each fall, as her children were sent back to the school, her mother noticed the silence in their home, making it as though "...someone had died." And in a way, the residential schools were killing the relationship between Indigenous children and their parents and elders. When Monica's mother became ill later in life, she wanted to know what had made them so emotionally distant. Monica explained that the bond between them was broken because of her being at the residential school. She learned to stop crying and accept this loss.

In the residential school, Monica witnessed abusive behaviour by a teacher towards students. These events brought about a deep sense of guilt and shame as she questioned whether she was to blame in some way. Even bringing a claim forward years later was devastating to Monica as it was traumatic to admit that she had been "damaged" by her experiences. She experienced feelings of "...self-hatred, shame, guilt, helplessness, and despair..." that led to reviving old addictions.

When reflecting back on her experiences at a retreat in 2002, Monica came to realize that she was "stripped of my identity and there was nothing of my culture left in me." Some of her earliest memories were of sleeping next to her parents in the deep cold of the Far North and feeling safe, and of watching her father in the early morning darkness prepare for the day's hunt. These early memories reminded Monica of her Inuit identity.

Through her difficult personal journey, Monica has been able to reclaim some of her Inuit culture: she can make Inuit clothing and jewelry, cook country food, drum dance and sing ajaajaa songs. She continues to struggle to understand what has happened to Inuit culture and her place in that culture. The process of reclaiming her own identity continues and is an ongoing one. This includes self-forgiveness, self-affirmation and forgiving those who harmed her.

The Scarf and The Butterfly portrays to readers just how complex and difficult this process has been and continues to be for residential survivors like Monica Ittusardjuat. Despite this difficult journey, Monica's memoir is one filled with hope, faith, acceptance and perseverance. She writes, 

"I am who I am, and I've become comfortable with that. I am Inuk and I have had a Qallunaaq upbringing, and I accept a bit from each. I am not the same as my Inuit friends or family, and I offer no apology for that. I have fought to become who I was meant to be. Adversities have not broken me; they have made me, and the victory is sweeter when you have fought for it than when it has been given to you."

The rich illustrations in this memoir by artists, Coco Apunnguaq Lynge and Scott Plumbe capture the beauty of Canada's Far North and our Inuit brothers and sisters, and accentuate Monica's message of healing and hope. Highly recommended for adults, teens and older children.

Book Details:

The Scarf and The Butterfly by Monica Ittusardjuat

Toronto: Inhabit Education Books Inc.    2023

67 pp.

Muinji'j Asks Why by Muinji'j and Shanika MacEachern

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.

Indigenous Perspectives

Book Details:

Muinji'j Asks Why by Muinji'j and Shanika MacEachern
Halifax, N.S.: Nimbus Publishing Ltd.       2022

As Long As The Rivers Flow by Larry Loyie

One day ten-year-old Lawrence's papa returns from checking his trapline with a surprise - a baby owl - and owlet he has found beneath a tree. Unable to find its mother, Papa has brought it home and tells Lawrence and his younger sister, Maruk to care for it, feed it wild meat until it is big enough to return to the forest. They decide to fix a place in the shed for the owlet to roost. Lawrence suggests they call it Ooh-Hoo, which means owl in their language. Every day the children feed Ooh-Hoo pieces of uncooked rabbit meat, bring him clean water and keep the shed clean. At night the children take him out to play: he loves hanging upside down on the clothesline.

 

Soon Papa and Grandpa work on the wagon, greasing the axels in preparation for the journey to the summer camp near the river. While Lawrence and his family eat moose stew and fresh bread inside their log home, Mama talks about taking the vegetables and the canvas tarp for drying berries. She tells Papa that Kokom has heard "that children are being taken from their families and put in school far away." This puzzles and worries Lawrence because he doesn't want to leave home. 

The time to leave for summer camp arrives. While Lawrence and his mother retrieve the remaining vegetables from last summer from the root cellar, his Uncle Louis hitches Blackie and Nellie, their horses to the wagon. With Papa and Uncle Lois leading the way on foot to clear branches that may have blown down, Grandma and Grandpa sit in the front seat of the wagon. Maruk will stay behind with Aunt Jenny to look after Ooh-Hoo. Accompanying Lawrence's family is another wagon with Auntie Rose, Uncle James and his cousins Clara, Leo, William and Sammy.

The two families camp at the same spot on the river every year. Lawrence and his cousin Sammy go swimming after rubbing down the horses. Grandpa and Grandma set up the lean-to for sleeping, laying canvas tarp and blankets over the spruce boughs. During the summer camp, Lawrence helps pick tasty saskatoon berries and works on his bush skills. But it is while out with his kokom looking for medicinal plants that Lawrence has his greatest adventure!

But when they return home from their summer camp, Lawrence and his  sister learn that they will be taken away from their home to go to a school far away. They must go otherwise their parents will be sent to prison. When the day arrives, both Lawrence and his sister cry as they are put into the truck with its high sides. 

Discussion

As Long As the Rivers Flow offers young readers a window into the life of a young Cree boy before he is taken way to a residential school. Ten-year-old Lawrence doesn't attend school but is busy learning the ways of his people; learning bush skills, how to care for animals, medicinal herbs and so forth. Life is simple, carefree, and almost idyllic. It is a life that includes many generations of his family, his grandparents, uncles, parents and siblings and it is a life in which knowledge and oral history are passed from one generation to the next.

Loyie fills his account with many pieces of  Indigenous knowledge and ways of life. For example, while out on a walk with his kokom, Lawrence is told,  "When it is dried, this rat root is good for a sore throat or a cold. Chew a small piece or make a tea with it. I always carry rat root wherever I go." His father encourages him to practice certain skills that will enable him to be a good hunter. "There's a family of beavers living in the river. They come up for food early every morning and late in the evening. If they smell you, they will dive down and go somewhere else. See if you can fool them." Descriptions of preparations for summer camp, making the beds in the lean-to portray a simple but practical way of life in the bush. The sense of community is demonstrated after his grandmother kills an attacking grizzly bear;  the bear is taken back to camp, the meat cut into portions, smoked and dried to be shared with all the families.

Loyie's detailed account of his last journey to his family's summer camp gives readers some sense of what he lost by being forcibly sent away from his family to school. It's not just the cultural knowledge that was never learned, but the time spent with parents and grandparents, the experiences of living with family and community over the years that were forever lost. 

 

The lovely water colour illustrations by Heather D. Holmlund capture the beauty of the land where Lawrence and his family lived. This beautiful artwork also captures the wide range of emotions from the joy of Lawrence and Marluk when they are shown the owlet, Lawrence's quiet patience by the beaver pond, the grief of his mother and grandmother over their children being forcibly removed to the childrens' sadness as they are driven away in the truck.

The title, As Long As The Rivers Flow is a reference to what Lawrence's grandfather tells him during a family gathering, " This land has always given us what we need to live...Like they told us long ago, as long as the rivers flow, this land is ours. It is up to all of us to care for it..." Despite the injustice of the residential schools, Lawrence worked to reclaim his Cree heritage in an effort to heal.  The Epilogue, at the back of the book is filled with black and white photographs of Lawrence and his siblings, the residential school and his grandparents. Lawrence attended St. Bernard's Mission residential school in northern Alberta. He would not return home until he was fourteen-years-old and struggled to fit in to a very changed world as an adult. He taught himself to type and had a successful career as a First Nations author. 

As Long As The Rivers Flow won the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Nonfiction. Lawrence (Larry) Loyie passed away in 2010 after a lengthy battle with cancer.

Book Details:

As Long As The Rivers Flow by Larry Loyie
Toronto: A Groundwood Book    2002

Red Wolf by Jennifer Dance

The novel Red Wolf  tells the story of a young Anishnaabe boy who is forced from his home into a residential school and how this changes his life forever. The story is told by two narrators, the boy, Red Wolf and a wolf named Crooked Ear who lives near the Anishnaabe.

Red Wolf opens in the year 1885, in the Algonquian wilderness of Ontario, Canada. A young wolf pup, Crooked Ear with his father Tall-Legs and his mother Tika and his wolf-siblings encounter "Uprights" who smell different from the people who live in the forest. The Uprights, who are lumberjacks, kill Crooked Ear's family. He manages to escape into the forest where he spends several months starving as he forages for food. By summer Crooked Ear arrives at the camp of "The People" who smell like they belong in the forest but who smell different from the lumberjacks.

However, The People are too distracted to notice the howl of the orphaned little wolf pup. Instead they are worried about "the pale-faced people moving up from the south, cutting down the great white pines." With the forests gone, the birds, deer and elk begin to vanish and their way of life too. Despite their discussions around the fireside, their drumming and praying, The People do not know what to do.

Two months after both the wolf pup and the boy had been at Clear Lake, their paths cross. Red Wolf wants to go to the pup but his father, HeWhoWhistles holds him back for fear of the pup's mother. When no wolf mother appears and HeWhoWhistles notices the pup is starving, they feed him. As the weeks pass, Crooked Ear becomes a healthy juvenile wolf.  Although HeWhoWhistles sends Crooked Ear away so he can learn to be a wolf, the young pup continues to return to The People's campsite, sleeping against the outside wall of Red Wolf's family wigwam. He wants to be near the young Upright called Red Wolf.

One day a stranger comes to the camp riding a horse. Red Wolf is captivated by the stranger's horse and leads him to graze in the grass. The stranger, who has white skin, speaks Algonquian and tells The People that he is an Indian agent. The Indian agent informs The People that they must leave this land as loggers are moving into the area. The People tell the agent they cannot move as the land belongs to them, they live off the land and the trees must not be cut. But the Indian Agent tells them the land is no longer theirs as it has been sold. He produces a piece of paper which is the title to the land and tries to encourage them to move to the reserve where they will be given land and a house. This doesn't satisfy The People because their ancestors are buried on this land. The Indian Agent tells them they will be given food and there will be a school for their children. When the agent is ready to leave, he is angry that Red Wolf has taken his horse and accuses the little boy of trying to steal him.

The Indian Agent's visit results in confusion and disagreement among The People. Some want to migrate further north away from the intruders, some to learn the ways of the newcomers, others to stay and fight for their land. In the end, HeWhoWhistles takes his wife, his son Red Wolf and his parents and moves to the reserve. The wolf, Crooked Ear, follows the Uprights to the reserve.

When HeWhoWhistles and his family arrive at the reserve, they find a mix of shacks, wooden buildings and wigwams. HeWhoWhistles asks the guide where all the children are and is told they have been sent to the school in Bruce County, a five day journey by foot. HeWhoWhistles learns that his son will be sent to the school to live away from home. This enrages HeWhoWhistles and he reminds the agent that Red Wolf is his son. He is told that because he signed the paper, he is part of the Indian Act which he must now obey. This means he must live on the reservation and his son is a ward of the government. StarWoman begs the agent not to take their son but the guide tells her that the government will educate the Indian children and make them Christians. When StarWoman attacks the guide she is almost shot. The Indian guide gives HeWhoWhistles a ten day pass to escort his son to school and tells him he must return to the reservation within that time otherwise he will be jailed.

Red Wolf and his father journey to the school and are followed by the wolf, Crooked Ear, but only as far as the tall grass. Despite Red Wolf's fear, HeWhoWhistles tells him he needs to learn the white man's ways. They are met at the iron gate of the school by a bald man, Mister Hall who forces Red Wolf behind the gates and tells HeWhoWhistles to return at the end of June. Inside the school, Red Wolf is whipped with a leather whip when he speaks his native language, stripped of his clothing which is burned, has his hair washed in kerosene and cut short, and given the name of George Grant and the number 366. So begins Red Wolf's experience in the residential schools of Canada.

While Red Wolf spends his first weeks attempting to survive the harsh treatment at the (fictional) Bruce County Residential School, Crooked Ear waits at the edge of the tall grass for his return. When the big Upright returns alone, Crooked Ear travels quickly to the school but finds his path to the young Upright whose scent he can smell, blocked by barbed wire. Unable to reach Red Wolf, and with the unrelenting call to return to Clear Lake, his birth place, Crooked Ear journeys back to his old pack.

Crooked Ear finds that his brother Seraph is now the alpha male and he must submit. He becomes the wolf with the lowest standing in the pack. When Red Wolf journeys home with his father at the end of the school year, Crooked Ear meets up with them. Whenever Red Wolf accompanies his father into the bush, Crooked Ear accompanies them but he never stays very long. When HeWhoWhistles takes his son back to the school, Crooked Ear once again refuses to cross the meadow. He returns to the pack at Clear Lake led by Seraph. A second spring arrives and Red Wolf journeys home with his father, once again met by Crooked Ear. When Red Wolf runs away from school in his third year, Crooked Ear is there to guide him home. However, Crooked Ear becomes trapped in a snare and it is the young boy who saves his life, rescuing him from the trap. They reach the reserve safely, outwitting the Indian agent, but Crooked Ear is unable to warn Red Wolf in time and he is captured by the soldiers and taken back to the residential school.

Red Wolf's father does not return after his third year and he learns the awful truth about what has happened to his family. Crooked Ear shows up at the meadow by the edge of the forest but the boy does not appear. The meadow is now a corn field and the forest, pastures with fences, filled with four-leggeds. Crooked-Ear seeks the boy Upright at the reserve but he is not there either. So he travels further north where he spends years with the Great Northern wolf pack. But he is restless, returning to his birth den at Clear Lake and missing the boy he has formed a bond with. Likewise as time moves on Red Wolf grows up, graduates from school and moves into the world. He too is restless, unable to find work and returns to the reserve. But the adult Red Wolf will one day meet the son of Crooked Ear and together they find a way to begin again, reclaiming what they have lost.

Discussion

Red Wolf is the fictional account of a young Anishnaabe boy's experience in one of Canada's residential schools but is based on the personal accounts and memories of those who attended and those who worked in the schools. Dance parallels Red Wolf's narrative with that of the wolf, Crooked Ear, who has a red tinge to his fur. Both Red Wolf and Crooked Ear share similar experiences when they encounter the white man.

The residential schools were Canada's attempt to assimilate the indigenous population which was considered inferior and savage. The arrival of European explorers and settlers to North America, meant that the cultural imperialism that was brought to India, Africa and South America also influenced policy in British North America. The indigenous peoples were scattered throughout Canada on land sought after by settlers. In an attempt to remove them from their land and to "civilize" their culture, a policy of assimilation was pursued. The churches were willing to participate because they were in the business of evangelizing souls and schools which removed the children from their "pagan" and "savage" culture were seen as the means to accomplish this.

This exact view was expressed by Canada's first prime minister as quoted in the Official report of the debates of the House of Commons of the Dominion of Canada dated May 9, 1883 :
"When the school is on the reserve the child lives with its parents, who are savages; he is surrounded by savages, and though he may learn to read and write his habits, and training and mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write. It has been strongly pressed on myself, as the head of the Department, that the Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men."

Throughout the 1800's, the government of pre-confederation Canada began implementing social policies and laws that supported this action. The first residential school to open in Canada was the Mohawk Institute in Brantford in 1831. The Bagot Commission (1842-1844) determined that the best way to assimilate Canada's "Indians" would be by removing them from their homes and the influence of their parents. Methodist minister, Egerton Ryerson recommended that education of "Indian" children focus on religious and agricultural training. Canada's Indian Act was passed in 1876 and it gave the government almost absolute control over the lives of indigenous peoples. In 1879, the Davin Report recommended the creation of residential schools which was authorized in 1883 by Sir. John A. MacDonald, Canada's first prime minister. In 1884, amendments to the 1876 Indian Act allowed for the creation of residential schools. These schools were to be funded by the Government of Canada AND the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and United churches. All traditional indigenous ceremonies were banned. The story of Red Wolf begins in 1885,  just after these amendments became law.

Students and family members, Father Joseph Hugonnard, Principal, staff and Grey Nuns on a hill overlooking the Fort Qu'Appelle Indian Industrial School, Lebret, Saskatchewan, May 1885

In Red Wolf,  Jennifer Dance portrays both the wide-reaching negative effects of the clash of European and Indigenous cultures and the implementation of Canada's residential school system. Every character in the novel is affected, but most significantly the Indigenous children and their families.  Foreshadowing the coming trouble, is the arrival of the white man in the Anishnaabes' lives. Loggers arrive and begin cutting down the great white pines, changing the ecosystem and directly impacting the life of the Indigenous people who live off the land. When Red Wolf's people make their summer camp they talk about "reports of a vast dead land where there was no birdsong, no chittering of squirrels and chipmunks, no deer, no elk, nothing!"

The arrival of the Indian agent, whose manner is haughty, brings more disaster. The Anishnaabe are told their land does not belong to them and they must move to the reservation where they will be given land, food and their children educated. The Anishnaabe do not understand this concept of property.  "Why should we move to a new place? Our ancestors have lived and died here since time began...Their bones rest in this soil. We cannot leave their spirits here!"  Despite this HeWhoWhistles decides to enroll his son, Red Wolf into the white man's school so his people will understand the white men and not be further deceived. However, HeWhoWhistles and StarWoman learn their son will be taken far away. HeWhoWhistles feels fear and shame because he is unable to protect his son.

The novel excels at realistically portraying the experiences of young Indigenous children in the residential schools through the eyes of  Mishqua Ma'een'gun (Red Wolf). Upon entering the school his sense of identity is attacked and broken down. Red Wolf experiences fear and shame as he is stripped, his clothing, lovingly crafted by his mother burned, his long braids which were to be cut only when someone died are shorn and burned. Like other children entering a residential school, Red Wolf is not allowed to speak his  language and is punished for doing so. This happens when Red Wolf explains his name to Father Thomas in Anishnaabemowin. Each student is assigned a new English name (Red Wolf is given the name George Grant) and a number, by which they were often referred to. Children were not allowed to return home until the summer and their families not allowed to visit during the school year. Letters were often not delivered or destroyed. In the novel, Red Wolf's only friend, Turtle discovers Mother Hall burning the letters sent to the children by their parents. Isolated from the loving care of parents, family and community, these children suffered terribly. They forgot their language and their customs. When they returned home during the summer months, the children were often unable to communicate with family and found their own culture now strange.

Perhaps the most insidious damage inflicted by the residential school system was changing how the Indigenous children viewed themselves, their families and their culture. Dance shows how almost every aspect of indigenous identity was attacked in the schools. In the novel, Red Wolf and the other children are repeatedly told they are stupid, worthless Indians or filthy savages. After only a year, Red Wolf "...had learned quite thoroughly that he was a filthy Indian and a savage. The knowledge had left him feeling sullied and ashamed." When questioned by his father as to what he has learned at the white man's school, Red Wolf reflects privately, " I learned that I am a savage. That The People are heathens and pagans. That we are all dirty Indians." Unable to express this to his father in his native language and ashamed to tell his parents Red Wolf instead tries to explain to his father about Jesus and Hell. After his first year, Red Wolf, along with the other Indigenous children is given an assignment "to turn their parents away from the sinful, savage ways that led to Hell, and guide them instead on the path to Jesus." When Red Wolf is taken to the fields he is told by the farm manager, "The wandering lifestyle you all have, picking berries and hunting, isn't civilized." Dance also portrays many of the other problems that characterized the Indian residential schools; poor nutrition, hard manual labour, cruel teachers and staff  who abused children physically and sexually, and a high rates of illness and death.

The larger effect of the residential schools on the Indigenous communities is also demonstrated by what happens to Red Wolf's family over time. When faced with the forced enrollment of their second child, a daughter, HeWhoWhistles fights the Indian agent and kills him. The judicial system, unconcerned with hearing HeWhoWhistles perspective hangs him and StarWoman, now alone, turns to alcohol. This results in her permanently losing custody of her daughter, Lali, Red Wolf's sister. Red Wolf, furious at his father's inability to protect him, begins to abandon his identity as Red Wolf and comes to refer to himself as George.

The ultimate goal of the residential schools, supposedly to assimilate the Indigenous population, has the exact opposite effect. Red Wolf graduates from the school but is unable to find work. Instead he is only fit for manual labour and drifts from farm to farm. Red Wolf/George returns to the reservation with the intention of farming the land that is his, except he is unable to get a bank loan to buy the agricultural equipment he needs. He becomes an alcoholic, living on the reserve with others like himself who attended the residential schools but who are now unable to form bonds with spouses and children. Eventually Red Wolf makes the decision to be who he really is - Mishqua Ma'ee'gun - Red Wolf.

Dance attempts to provide a balanced perspective by portraying some of the  white people in the novel as decent.  The neighboring farmer feels pity for the children working in the fields with only shovels and even comes to help them harvest the hay before a storm. Eventually he helps Red Wolf escape from the school, although he does very little else to help Red Wolf and becomes concerned for himself later on. The school nurse, witnessing the lack of compassion for the children and especially for Red Wolf who is the last to leave after Grade One, comforts him, reassuring him that his parents do love him and would come if they could. However, most of the white people are shown to have little understanding or concern for the indigenous families and their children. Father Thomas in particular tries to convince Red Wolf that his parents do not care for him and that being separated from them is "the very reason we take you from your families; to spare you this pain of rejection... Believe me, George, you are better off without them."

Co-narrating the novel is the red wolf Crooked Ear who like Red Wolf, suffers from his contact with the white man whom he calls "Uprights". His family is murdered by the white man and he becomes separated from the pack. His life parallels that of the little "Upright" Red Wolf who is also separated from his family. Just as Red Wolf does not learn the culture of his people, Crooked Ear does not learn the skills necessary to fend for himself in the wild and within a wolf pack until he is older. Both become outsiders, struggling to fit into the world, forever changed by the white man.

There aren't many young adult novels that explore the residential schools and their part in Canadian history. Red Wolf is an excellent starting point for young people and adults alike, to explore the devastating effect of residential schools on Canada's First Nations people. Looking back through the lens of the twenty-first century which is more open to and accepting of various cultures, it is difficult to understand the mindset of nineteenth and twentieth century Europeans. Many truly believed they were doing a good thing in removing Indigenous children from their "savage" lifestyle. Others saw the destruction of Indigenous families and their way of life as a means to claim land and resources. 

Jennifer Dance can be extremely proud of her well-written and haunting portrayal of the immense harm inflicted on generations of Indigenous people through the residential schools. Red Wolf is a novel that unashamedly exposes the truth of this tragedy in the hopes of moving forward to reconciliation.

The following resources will be helpful in researching more about Canada's residential schools:

The Canadian Encyclopedia has a wealth of information on residential schools, their history, as well as all aspects of the schools.

Project of Heart is also an excellent resource that focuses on "examining the history and legacy of Indian Residential Schools in Canada and to seek the truth about that history, leading to the acknowledgement of the extent of loss to former students, their families and communities."

The Inuit Experience of Residential Schools

Residential Schools in Canada Education Guide

The Presbyterian Church in Canada Archives has a webpage devoted to residential schools.

The Catholic Church and residential schools.


Book Details:

Red Wolf by Jennifer Dance
Toronto: Dundurn Press,     2014
251 pp.

A Stranger At Home by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton

A Stranger At Home continues Olemaun's (Margaret)story as she lives at home for a year and struggles to reclaim her heritage. Ten year old Margaret meets her family in Tuktoyaktuk. She is thrilled to finally be going home. She has short hair, is thin and much taller. On her feet on canvas shoes. But when she greets her mother, she refuses to believe Margaret is her daughter, shouting, "Not my daughter. Not my daughter." Margaret, separated from her family for the past two years due to a short summer, finds her excitement evaporating fast. She is saved by the warm embrace of her father who calls her by her Inuvialuktun name, Olemaun. Her eight year old sister Elizabeth, seven year old sister Mabel and two year old brother Ernest are also there to greet her.

From the very beginning Margaret has trouble adjusting back to life in her own culture. She no longer remembers how to speak Inuvialuktun and must speak in English with her father translating. She has been taught to pray and worries about her family's spiritual welfare. Her favourite foods disgust her. " I was sickened by the pungent smell of whale blubber -- muktuk, I remembered -- the salty smell of dried fish, and the musky, gamey smell of meat and whipped caribou fat...I crinkled my nose shut." For Margaret, the food was worse than what she was fed at school. Her own people's food was heavy and sickening. Seeing the difficulty she had eating made Margaret's mother cry, further adding to her distress.

Margaret wants to return to their home on Banks Island as soon as possible, believing that this will make it more likely she will never have to go back to the outsiders' school. However, her father tells her that they will now make Tuktoyaktuk their home because he can obtain work as a special constable with the RCMP. Caught between two worlds Margaret must learn to navigate in both to survive. Relying on her determination and inner strength she does just that.

Discussion

A Stranger At Home which is the sequel to Fatty Legs focuses on Margaret's struggle to re-assimilate into her own culture after two years in a residential school. The authors do an excellent job of portraying the problems many First Nations children experienced when they returned home after even one or two years away from their families. Their struggles were real and complex. The lack of understanding what they were going through by their own families only compounded their pain. All of that is captured in Margaret's story.

While Margaret's mother expresses sorrow and anger over her daughter's loss of her identity, her father is more able to accept his daughter because of his previous experience attending a residential school. He understands her difficulties and patiently helps Margaret re-integrate.  As Margaret states, "He was the only one who nurtured Olemaun instead of chastising Margaret." He involves Margaret in the building of their new cabin, has her help him collect ice and teaches her how to handle the dog sled. Margaret listens during the long winter nights to the elders as they talk. Gradually over time, Margaret becomes less and less an outsider. The dogs no longer bare their teeth at her and greet her with wet kisses. She begins to relearn Inuvialuktun. She wears her mother's warm parka and her kamik. But she also loves to read and relishes the thought of have new books.

Margaret experiences tremendous internal conflict  as a result of her religious education at the residential school.  For example in the school she has been taught about God and that her family is going to go to Hell if they do not convert to Christianity. When she challenges her father about this he becomes angry. She states, "I felt like a bad Christian and a bad daughter for not trying harder to convert them." Margaret is afraid of the English-speaking missionaries whom she believes will punish her for not converting her family. Eventually from the stories told by the Inuvialuit elders, Margaret finds some comfort in the fact "that they had their own stories to give them guidance, stories that were handed down instead of being written." But she continues to struggle with her guilt because "the nuns had taught us that no one could go to Heaven without stories about Jesus." Although well meaning, sadly the Catholic missionaries used fear as a way to evangelize the Aboriginal peoples rather than demonstrating the love God has for us.

Like the previous book, Fatty Legs, A Stranger At Home includes numerous colour and black and white photographs in a section called Olemaun's Scrapbook and there is a small section titled The Schools which talks about the residential schools and their effect on the culture and families of the Aboriginal peoples.

Fatty Legs and A Stranger At Home are a much needed introduction to this difficult chapter in Canada's history.


Book Details:

A Stranger At Home by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton
Annick Press Ltd.      2011
124 pp.

Fatty Legs: A True Story by Christy Jordan-Fenton

Fatty Legs is the first of two books written by Margaret Pokiak-Fenton based on her personal experience in one of Canada's residential schools in Canada's far north. Margaret who was born Olemaun Pokiak, belonged to the Inuvialuit, or Canadian Western Inuit who inhabit the western Arctic. Olemaun had made the trip to Aklavik several times with her father when she was quite young. She was fascinated by the French-speaking nuns and priests. When her older half-sister, Ayouniq - called Rosie by the nuns, read part of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to Olemaun, she became determined to attend the school and learn to read.

But Ayouniq warns her younger sister that life in the school is not as she imagines it will be. Her beautiful long braid will be cut and she will have to do chores and kneel for forgiveness. When Olemaun asks her father to send her to the school he refuses. Although he knows how to read he doesn't value the learning taught in the school over the skills learned at home. But Olemaun believes her experiences at the school will be different. Her persistence pays off and Olemaun is allowed to attend the school. Like those before her, Olemaun finds herself completely unprepared for life in the residential school at Aklavik. Even worse, she finds herself stranded there for an extra year when the ice does not fully melt.


Discussion

Fatty Legs is based on Olemaun Margaret Pokiak-Fenton's childhood and her first two years in a residential school in Aklavik. Olemaun's father had warned her the outsiders will offer her no new skills and that their ways are not useful to the Inuit. "They make you wear their scratchy outsiders' clothes, which keep out neither the mosquitoes nor the cold. They teach you their songs and dances instead of your own. And they tell you that the spirit inside of you is bad and needs their forgiveness."  Olemaun is so keen to attend the school that she successfully argues against her father. Her initial enthusiasm is quickly dampened when she leaves her parents and is taken by the nuns. From the moment she enters the care of the nuns, her First Nations identity is broken down. Olemaun has her hair cut along with the other new girls and their beautifully handcrafted clothing, warm and suitable for the far North climate is removed and replaced with uncomfortable, ill-fitting clothing that is not warm. And the nuns are less than friendly.

Margaret Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton

To convey how the Aboriginal children viewed the nuns, the authors use adjectives that portray the religious nuns as cruel, predatory animals. The nuns are described as "the spectacle of dark-cloaked nuns, whose tongues flickered with French-Canadian accents" evoking a image of snakes or reptiles.  Olemaun is met inside the school by a nun who is description reads like a predatory bird; "An outsider with a hooked nose like a beak came for me, her scraping footsteps echoing through the long, otherwise silent halls."  Olemaun describes the nun who cuts her braids off in the same way, "I can fix my own hair," I protested in Inuvialuktun, but she held tight and, with the same motion a bird makes to pull a piece of flesh from a fish, clamped the jaws of shears down on my braid and severed it."  When Olemaun goes to put on the stockings her mother has purchased for her they are snatched from her by a nun "with a scaly claw."  But Olemaun's true nemesis is a hook-nosed nun she nicknames " the Raven".  The Raven "shrieks" , cackles and "scuttles" around the girls mocking Olemaun for using shaving cream to clean her teeth.

But not all the nuns are remembered as cruel. Margaret Pokiak-Fenton describes the head nun in very different terms. "A tall slender nun appeared in the doorway. She was pale and seemed to float across the bathroom floor...She looked like a pale swan, long and elegant." That nun was Sister MacQuillan. When the Raven is about to strike Olemaun for spilling her cabbage soup on her, "Then Sister MacQuillan glided between us, the Swan protecting me with her gentle wing." The Raven frequently singled Olemaun out for extra chores as she was "wilful" and had a strong character. To further punish Olemaun, the Raven makes her wear red stockings that make her well muscled legs look large. This leads to her classmates laughing at her and calling Olemaun "fatty legs". But Olemaun figures out a way to get rid of the stockings forever and it is Sister MacQuillan who understands.

Liz Amini-Holmes' artwork reinforces the dark nature of the nuns with their ghastly white faces set off by their dark habits and widows peak caps. At times the nuns look like vampires and in this respect,  the artwork seems a bit overdone.

Young readers, whom this book is geared towards, will quickly understand why Olemaun and the other Aboriginal children did not like the residential schools. These schools were designed by the white Canadians who lived in the south and who did not understand the particular character of the far North climate nor the ways and culture of the peoples who lived there. Their intentions were to educate the children and to assimilate them, the first a noble goal but the second a definite product of the belief that white Western culture was the only culture of merit. The effect of the schools on the children is demonstrated by Olemaun when she returns to her family after only two years. Her mother doesn't recognize her, she finds their food greasy, salty and strong smelling.

The authors round out this short biography with a chapter about the residential schools and a wonderful section titled Olemaun's Scrapbook which contains plenty of fascinating black and white photographs of her family, of the towns her family visited, the residential school in Aklavik, the students and the nuns and brothers at the school and Catholic mission in the North West Territories and many more interesting subjects.

You can learn more about Inuvialuit culture from the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation website.

The Canadian Museum of History also has a good section on Inuvialuit history that has been pieced together from various sources including traditional oral histories, archaeological research and the writings of those who lived and explored the far north.

A second book, A Stranger At Home was published in 2011 and is the sequel to Fatty Legs.

Book Details:

Fatty Legs: A true story by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton
Toronto: Annick Press   2010
104 pp.