Two local Elders are speaking on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and sharing their experiences.
Acadia News spoke with local Elder Josephine Potson of Seine River.
Potson says she was sent to a residential school at the age of four.
“I didn’t learn to speak English until I was about on that first year of school. I didn’t learn to speak but I was getting the strap for not speaking the English language. They put me in the corner all the time after being strapped.”
Potson notes, “There was a little boy that came to school and he was speaking in Ojibway and he used to tell me ‘If you don’t speak English they are going to continue strapping you like the way they did. You should start speaking English.’ So that’s what I did.”
She adds, “Through the years the Nuns were horrible people but whatever has happened to me through the school, I carried it through my married life and it’s just horrible.”
Even though she was only there for a few months, Elder Mookii Morrison says she remembers what happened every Sunday.
“It was always fried chicken, mashed potato, and peas with a giant cookie for dessert. I remember everything about that dinner, about the plate, where I sat, the Nun who was coming over constantly telling me ‘hurry up.'”
Morrison says she remembers chewing each pea individually to try and delay going from the cafeteria to the parish.
“In my case sold to a non-aboriginal home. At the age of 13, I was given over to another man who drove me to South Dakota. That’s where I was put into, I assumed at that time, was a residential school.”
Morrison adds she later found out it was also an adoption home.
She stresses it’s important for the average Canadian to recognize this day.
“There’s a lot of discrimination and hardship put on Anishnawbe people because of society discrimination. Individually, change your perspectives.”
Morrison adds that a lot of the stereotypes of First Nations people need to be acknowledged individually.
(With Files From Fort Frances and Kenora)
