Education News | Page 29
New Elder-in-Residence
Elder May Desnomie Photo credit : Shuana Niessen
Elder May Desnomie , a Woodland Cree from Peter Ballantyne First Nation , was born and raised in the northern Saskatchewan hamlet of Sandy Bay . Her family on both of her mom ’ s and dad ’ s sides and grandparents going back generations lived off the land , hunting , trapping , fishing and gathering . Before she was taken to the Catholic-run Guy Hill Indian Residential School in The Pas , Manitoba at the young age of 6 , May also lived off the land : “ I was 100 % immersed in my language and culture until I was taken away to residential school in 1956 .” If being far away from home at such a young age wasn ’ t enough hardship , residential school was made harder by the parental visitation policies : “ Parents weren ’ t allowed to visit in residential school . They had a room they called a parlor next to the principal ’ s office . The parents would come to visit there , and they were only allowed one hour ,” says May .
Though attending residential school didn ’ t destroy May ’ s Catholic faith , it did affect the faith of some members of her family . “ There are four of us that went to residential schools and two will not have anything to do with the church . I personally didn ’ t suffer any physical or sexual abuse .”
Still , May recognizes the damage done by the policies of residential