Photo Courtesy: College of New Caledonia

By Veronica Beltran

residential school

CNC Executive Director of Aboriginal Education recounts mother’s experience at residential school

Sep 30, 2020 | 12:13 PM

PRINCE GEORGE–CNC’s Executive Director of Aboriginal Education, Marlene Erickson, recounted her mother’s experience attending a residential school in honour of Orange Shirt Day.

“Lejac Indian Residential School opened in 1922. Previously children from throughout the Interior were sent to St. Joseph’s Residential School in Williams Lake which opened in the 1870s. There was also a residential school built in Fort St James in 1904 but I’m not sure which children attended, other than those from the Stuart Lake area.”

“My mother’s name was Sarah Prince, but the nuns called her Sally. My mother was orphaned at age two and sent to Lejac. She remembers the nuns putting her in the rag box in the sewing room while they attended to their teaching duties.”

“My mother had no memories of being part of a family. Children were separated by sex and age and so mom had very few opportunities to interact with her older siblings. During rare visits, it was her older sister Rose who explained family connections to my mom and who told her that her real name was Sarah. My mom grew up a virtual stranger from her brothers because opposite sex siblings were not allowed to talk to each other. It was only after Mom left Lejac that her brothers connected with her and told her she could reach out to them for help because they were family.”

“My mother always wanted to complete Grade 12 but the nuns would just laugh and say there were no schools for Indians. In fact, there were no high schools for status Indians until Kamloops Residential School was extended to Grade 12 in the late 1940s.”

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“I see this photo of my mother on the steps of Lejac – a kid full of dreams – who was denied that opportunity to graduate. I try to remind our youth that access to education is something our leaders, communities and ancestors had to fight for and they should try to remember to honour that history and take advantage of their education.”

“In all, my mother’s memories of Lejac were not good. She remembers that they were always cold, always hungry, and always lonely for home. She told us that the priests used to arrive in September with a gravel truck and load all the kids in. With dust boiling up causing nausea, all the kids used to cry at the prospect of being in Lejac for another year. She always remembered that the water tower was the first they could see of Lejac and all the kids would start crying louder.”

“She remembers always believing what the nuns told them, that “Indians are dumb.” She never even attempted to get a driver’s license until she was 42 years old because she honestly believed that she was dumb and could not pass the test.”

“My mother died of cancer when she was 53 years old and I often wonder if her Lejac years contributed to that. Severe nutritional deficits throughout key developmental years had to have a negative impact on her lifelong health. My mother was only starting to talk about her Lejac experiences by then. I guess she figured that we were too young to hear about the trauma she and her peers experienced so she didn’t talk much about it. She was a Catholic too and I think she did not want to appear critical of the Church.”

“I only wish my mom could have lived to see how society eventually gave survivors a voice to tell their stories without fear and without shame; I wish she could have lived to see the Prime Minister apologize in the House of Commons. I wish she could have lived to read the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action. I wish my mom could have lived to tell her story.”