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.

Agnes Grant is the author of No End of Grief: Canadian Indian Residential Schools (1996) and James McKay: A Métis Builder of Canada (1994). She coauthored Joining the Circle: A Practitioner’s Guide to Responsive Education for Native Students (1993) with LaVina Gillespie, and edited Our Bit of Truth: An Anthology of Canadian Native Literature (1990). She teaches Native Studies education courses at Brandon University for the Brandon University Northern Teacher Education Program (BUNTEP) and Program for Educating Native Teachers (PENT). She has written numerous articles on Native literature and Native educational issues. Her most recent publications include “‘Great Stories Are Told’: Canadian Native Novelists” (Native North America: Critical and Cultural Perspectives, ed. Renée Hulan, ECW Press, 1999).

Agnes Grant's profile page

Marlene Starr's profile page