Education News Autumn 2021 | Page 4

Faculty of Education | University of Regina | Autumn 2021

Pimosayta : Learning to Walk Together Reflections on Truth and Reconciliatio

Stories about Indigenous education and unmarked

<

Dr . Angelina Weenie is a Plains Cree from Sweetgrass First Nation in Treaty 6 territory .
My TRC story is not the typical story as I did not attend residential school ; I went to Sweetgrass Day School . My parents attended Delmas Residential School . It is about 10 miles from our reserve . My two sisters and my brother attended Lebret Residential School . My other sister attended St . Gabriel ’ s High in Biggar , Saskatchewan . They each had different experiences . It is hard for me to write about others ’ experiences . It is their story , and they are not here anymore . It is not my place to write about them , but they need to be honoured and not forgotten .
I do understand why I carry a deep sense of loneliness and sadness . It must emanate from my parents and my brother and sisters and what they went through when they were taken from their families and from their homes . My father was interviewed by the Leader-Post in 1990 . He talked about how the nuns would call them savages ( See excerpt to the right ).
Lebret is far from our home ( about a 5-hour drive ). Sweetgrass is west of Battleford , Saskatchewan . I remember when the big yellow school buses would arrive to pick up the children . I can only imagine how lonely , lost , and scared they would be to go so far away from home . I also have a photo from my sister Lorraine ’ s Grade 12 graduation . My parents , my grandparents , and the principal from our school travelled to Lebret . This was a grand occasion for my family . My grandfather stood proudly in his chief ’ s outfit ( See photos right ).
These memories are about how First Nations people believed in education .
" The thought of a local farmer plowing under an Indian burial site to sow his crop still angers 70-year-old Joseph Weenie . ' They had no respect for anyone who was Indian ,' he said , shaking his head and staring off into the distance . ' They didn ' t even think we deserved a decent burial . ... They called our parents savages , but they were the savages ,' he said ." ( The Leader-Post , Aug . 18 , 1990 , " Memories haunt native ") www2 . uregina . ca / education / news