National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation

The NCTR exists to honour the experiences of residential school Survivors. It is a permanent house for all materials gathered by the TRC.

nctr.ca

NCTR Audio Series

Who We Were, Who We Are: Episode 2

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An audio series with inspiring reflections from residential school Survivors and Ry Moran, Director of the NCTR.

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Music: "Residential School Song" by Cheryl Bear

Survivors Louise Bossum and Therèse Niquay both shared their accounts in French. This version includes voice overs in English. Below, a FR version of this episode features the accounts in their original format.

Transcript

As cited in The Survivors Speak.

I’m come from a long way, I came a long way. I’m from Great Lake Mistissini. That’s where I was born in the bush. It was a pride for me to say that because I was born in the bush in a tent. It’s something that remains in my heart going to the woods, living in the woods. It’s in my heart. Before going to the boarding school, my parents often told me what they were doing in the woods when I was born. What they were doing, we were in camp with other families. The stories my father told us, my mother, too.

TRC, AVS, Louise Bossum, Statement to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, La Tuque, Québec, 6 March 2013, Statement Number: SP105.

I remember especially the winter landscapes, fall landscapes too. I remember very well I often looked at my father, hunting beaver especially. I admired my father a lot. And I remember at one point I was looking at him, I think I was on the small hill, and he was below, he had made a hole in the ice, and he was hunting beaver with a, with a harpoon, and I was there, I was looking at him and I was singing. And I remember when I was kid I sang a lot, very often. And I also remember that we lived or my, my paternal grandmother was most often with us, my, my father’s mother, and we lived in a large family also, an extended family in the bush. Those are great memories.

TRC, AVS, Thérese Niquay, Statement to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, La Tuque, Québec, 6 March 2013, Statement Number: SP105.

 

This version of episode 2 features the Survivors' accounts in their original French language:

 

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