Finding My Talk

• Agnes Grant
• Fifth House Publishing
• Paperback; 224 pages
• 9781894856577

When residential schools opened in the 1830s, First Nations envisioned their own teachers, ministers, and interpreters. Instead, students were regularly forced to renounce their cultures and languages and some were subjected to degradations and abuses that left severe emotional scars for generations. In Finding My Talk, fourteen aboriginal women who attended residential schools, or were affected by them, reflect on their experiences. They describe their years in residential schools across Canada and how they overcame tremendous obstacles to become strong and independent members of aboriginal cultures and valuable members of Canadian society. Biographies include:
Eleanor Brass, Journalist, Plains Cree, Saskatchewan
Rita Joe, Poet/Writer, Mi’kmaq, Nova Scotia
Alice French, Writer, Inuit, Northwest Territories
Shirley Sterling, School Administrator/Storyteller, Nlakapmux, British Columbia
Doris Pratt, Education Administrator/Language Specialist, Dakota, Manitoba
Edith Dalla Costa, School Counsellor, Woodland Cree, Alberta
Sara Sabourin, Community Worker, Ojibway, Ontario