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schools , She says , “ I have nothing good to say about residential schools . They destroyed our cultures , our languages , our families . For myself , I met many good people along my journey . Although I am not going to say anything nice about residential schools , I will say there were nice people . However , the policies were destructive : the residential school was trying to destroy our way of life . That is still their goal : They still want to assimilate us , to fit us into the Canadian multicultural dream , but they can ’ t forget that we were the first people on this land .”
May moved to Wilcox to attend high school at Athol Murray College of Notre Dame boarding school after 9 years as a student at Guy Hill . She says , “ I was sent there as part of the integration policy . My aunt was a teacher / nun at the elementary school there , and I could see her because she was a supervisor .” The change in landscape from her northern roots was a big change for May , “ It was a culture shock for me , being from northern Saskatchewan with the rocks and the forest . Honestly , Wilcox has the flattest land in Saskatchewan , I swear . And we didn ’ t have the water that we had up north . When I was a child , you could drink water right from the lakes up north . We drank the water from the dugout at Wilcox and it was bad .”
After being in an institution for 11 years of her life , May decided to move to Saskatoon to take her Grade 12 from E . D . Feehan Catholic High School . “ I had to find some freedom . I don ’ t know why , but I ended up in Saskatoon . Indian Affairs put us in boarding homes .”
May decided to become a teacher after graduating high school because she wanted to help change the narrative of Indigenous people in Canadian society . She says , “ When I was in residential school , I did not learn my Indigenous history , like the history of Indian people . We were told we were savages and pagans and I didn ’ t think that was right . I was hoping I could change that narrative in the classroom to some degree .” After graduating from the University of Saskatchewan with a Bachelor of Education , May and her husband Gerry Desnomie returned to the North , moving to Red Earth First Nation where she taught Grade 1 students .
Changing the narrative has been the work of May ’ s entire career in education : “ It ’ s coming along slowly , but now they teach treaties in the classroom , and now they have native studies in high school , but they still need to change the curriculum to have more of the Indigenous perspective in there .” To help with curriculum change , May is sitting with an elder ’ s group that is advising www2 . uregina . ca / education / news