Tag: First Nation

Opposition to Residential School Survivor Denialism 

by Rita Jasper, posted in Mary and her Metis Grandma, Residential School, Residential Schools

The places where children are believed to be buried cannot be disturbed because the Nation from which the child originated cannot be identified. Some protocols must be followed before exhuming what remains of the little sacred bodies; each Nation has different rules for disturbing the deceased. Because of this, it is hard to prove how many children are buried at the Kamloops Residential School.

Before this secret Kamloops graveyard, anonymous burial sites were documented by the University of Saskatchewan in 1974. A cairn, pictured below, erected at the Battleford Industrial School was placed at the cemetery after a total of 72 graves were excavated by staff and Archaeology students from the University of Saskatchewan. Back in 1974, the Indigenous people didn’t have the political strength to oppose the excavation like the current Nations surrounding Kamloops.

There are too many possible mass graves to mention, so lastly, I will mention only two more of many mass graves of disrespect.
1) Lemay Forest, Manitoba, contains an unmarked mass burial ground for Indigenous, Metis, and European children from the Asile Ritchot orphanage (or Asile Rache). Our parents told us to walk “in a graceful manner”, with kind, loving thoughts, because you never know when you might be walking on someone’s resting place — their grave.

2) Magdaline Laundries originated in Europe but were adopted in Canada. While it was touted as safe places for young women who had made bad choices, they were workhouses providing free labout to the churches that operated them. In Europe, one of these church businesses decided to sell some land and asked a man to move some burried boxes to another location. He discovered that there were skeletons in the boxes and reported it.

Image from (Ben Feist) CBC News · Posted: May 24, 2017 4:00 AM PDT | Last Updated: May 24, 2017

Stone cairn with plaque for unmarked graves of children in Saskatchewan, Canada

Dr. Bryce, Government Medical Inspector for Residential Schools

From a newspaper article, Saturday Night, Bryce said:

“Indian residential schools should compel the attention of Parliament. Indian boys and girls are dying like flies in these situations [Residential Schools] or shortly after leaving them….” Click button below to read more details.

Life at Residential Schools for Indigenous Children

After the Department of Indian Affairs ignored Dr. Bryce’s report, he published his own book, The Story of a National Crime. It detailed how the churches, with government approval, purposefully ignored the health issues resulting from unsanitary conditions and even an electric chair which was used for discipline. Click button below to read more details.

Survival Rate for Indigenous Students at Residential Schools

Bryce predicted that the death rates associated with residential schools were much higher than initially believed, closer to 42% after carefully analyzing the data he gathered. Accordingly, only 58 [or 58%] of  100 children and youth who attended the residential school would eventually be reunited with their families.

Click here for more details from Mary and her Metis Grandma

If you are specifically intrerested in Dr. Bryce’s book click this link. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aqOakvnjg6cHEL29fQwyB4GM83bazFO3?usp=sharing

Indigenous Elders, Teressaa and Melvin Sapp Chapter 33

by Rita Jasper, posted in Mary and her Metis Grandma

Teressa and Melvin Sapp PDF Chapter 33 from Mary and her Metis Grandma  

Two Elders, Teressa and Simon Sapp sitting in their living room.

Elders, Teressa & Simon give interview for the novel Mary and her Metis Grandma

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This is a snippet from Mary and her Metis Grandma . This essay describes my feelings before and during the interview with the late Teressa and the late Simmon Sapp. We had talked on the phone many times before meeting in person. She had already won me over with her great sense of humour. During the visit, we talked about their Grandma (Maggie Soonias) who was a dear family friend dof my Grandma. Click above link to read PDF. Happy reading.  #JournoRequest #PR #JornoRequest 

Mary and her Metis Grandma (Novel)

The novel “Mary and her Metis Granda” weaves historical and modern Metis and Indigenous stories together. This is a work of auto-fiction / biography and memoirs resulting in historical literary fiction. There are two sets of memoirs: one from the early 1900s (Grandma) and the other from the 1980s to 2021 (teenager Mary). I’ve embellished and rewritten my Grandmother’s factually correct memoirs and placed them into additional historical and current events. The manuscript is character-driven with honest emotions. Click above link to read PDF

Indigenous Elders

Elders are important because they are knowledge keepers and sometimes different types of Medicine People. The book is a Métis teenager’s journey of overcoming personal grief, witnessing the pain of others and experiencing the healing power of a Grandma’s love. Click above link to read PDF

Indigenous Elders, Teressa and Simon Sapp talk about their Grandma

by Rita Jasper, posted in Mary and her Metis Grandma

I was very lucky to interview two Elders, the late Teressa and the late Simon Sapp, about their Grandma, Maggie Soonias. It warmed my heart to meet these Cultural Workers and to know that their Grandma babysat my Grandma.

Daily Life and Midwife Work of an Indigenous Female Elder of the early 1900s.

In this video, they talk about their Grandma’s daily life and the sacred work she did as a midwife. Maggie Soonias was a traditional Medicine Woman. Click button below photo to view video.

Simon also talks about the type of work he did as a young Indigenous man.

Simon Sapp worked as a labourer, for road constructiion, fixing fences and picking rocks. Click above link to access video.

Teressa and Simon sit in their living room in front of a wall hanging of a family of bears
Click here to view video.