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L'auteure, troisiéme generation de survivants des pensionnats pour Autochtones, raconte son experience du perlage avec sa grand-mere, qui a fréquenté le pensionnat de St. Joseph à Fort William (aujourd'hui Thunder Bay) entre 1941 et 1948. Par le biais du perlage, elles s'engagent dans la resurgence Anishinaabe, fournissant un cadre pour explorer les problémes actuels de gouvernance et de diplomatie auxquels sont confrontés les peuples indigenes.
"On her arrival at the Presbyterian school in Kenora, Lorna Morgan was wearing 'these nice little beaded moccasins that [her] grandma had made [her] towear for school, and [she] wasveryproud ofthem.' Shesaid they were taken from her and thrown in the garbage."
(TRC, 2015, p. 44)
Prologue
I am a third-generation Indian residential school survivor. My grandmother was uprooted from her community of Opwaaganasiniing in 1941 at the age of six to attend St. Josephs Residential School in Fort William (now Thunder Bay). I don't know much about her time there or her childhood because she never talked about it. She moved away at a young age, leaving my dad in the care of her family.
Later in life, my grandmother moved back home. St. Joseph's had been demolished by then, ending its nearly century-long existence. It was during this time that my grandmother and I reconnected. Up until that point, I hadn't seen my grandmother since I was a child. I remember the first time I went to go visit her after this long rift. It was Christmas, and to "break the ice" I brought her a Christmas-themed charm bracelet. I knew that she liked knick-knacks and things like that. When I knocked on her door there was no answer, but I left the present with a note. I remember feeling disappointed, but also relieved as I was unsure what I would say if she had answered the door. Shortly after she reached out to me and from then on, I would visit her often and she would teach me what she knew about beading, which she learned from the "Native Centre" in Montreal.
My grandmother always masked the trauma and hurt she carried with jokes and lots of swear words, but during one of our visits, she very somberly expressed guilt and shame about not being able to...