New Search Search History

Holdings Information

    My heart shook like a drum : what I learned at the Indian Mission schools, Northwest Territories / Alice Blondin-Perrin.

    • Title:My heart shook like a drum : what I learned at the Indian Mission schools, Northwest Territories / Alice Blondin-Perrin.
    •    
    • Author/Creator:Blondin-Perrin, Alice, 1948-
    • Other Contributors/Collections:Xwi7xwa Collection
    • Published/Created:Ottawa, Ont. : Borealis Press, ©2009.
    • Holdings

       
    • FNHL (Xwi7xwa) Subjects: Indigenous Peoples--Residential schools--Impact.
      Indigenous Peoples--Residential schools--Northwest Territories.
    • Canadian Subjects: First Nations--Northwest Territories--Residential schools.
    • Library of Congress Subjects:Blondin-Perrin, Alice, 1948-
      Blondin-Perrin, Alice, 1948---Family.
      Tinne Indians--Northwest Territories--Biography.
    • Description:xii, 206 pages : illustrations, map, portraits ; 22 cm.
    • Summary:"Alice Blondin-Perrin is a Dene born in 1948 at Cameron Bay, Northwest Territories, from a good family, Edward and Eliza Blondin. Alice suffered through many years of abuse trying to fit into a new way of life in residential school. She was abused by Grey Nun supervisors upon entering St. Joseph's Roman Catholic School in 1952 at the age of four. She was hit over and over again but, little by little, the system changed her into a boarding-school ideology of being prim and proper while living with no love, no hugs and no explanations about life itself on a daily basis. Everything seemed sinful then. Upon leaving the residential school institutions, Alice had to learn everything about the outside world by herself and suffered from language barriers between her parents and the community. It took many years to learn about aboriginal culture and traditions, a heritage taken away by Government Initiatives. Despite this, she overcame those barriers by reading thousands of books to self-educate herself about life in general. She worked for thirty years at various jobs and raised two successful daughters. Alice now resides in Quebec with her husband, Dave."--from pub. website.
    • Local note:First Nations author.
    • Notes:Includes bibliographical references (page 206).
    • ISBN:9780888873750
      0888873751
    • Contents:While I took my first step into residential school in 1952
      Introduction
      First steps (before residential school)
      Entering St. Joseph's Mission School
      Using numbers instead of our names
      Learning routine
      Forcing the "Indian" out of us
      St. Joseph's Mission School residence
      Every day I lived in fear of the Grey Nun supervisors
      Seeing an apparition
      Another phenomenon
      Hospital stay
      My friends
      Activities to keep us busy
      Special church ceremonies
      Making toffee, a native tradition
      Mission Island log house gatherings
      For six summers I stayed for unknown reasons
      My parents' visit
      Schooling
      Move to Breynat Hall during the Christmas break
      My first trip home after six years of confinement
      Learning more about Native values and traditions
      To Yellowknife, and what and experience it was
      Back to Breynat Hall during residential school
      Honour our ways to heal government
      Lapointe Hall residential school and walking away
      Roman Catholic Grey Nuns and priests
      Community observations
      Third phenomenon
      Dysfunctional patterns
      Social behaviour I learned from my parents
      Aboriginal leadership
      The government and the Indian Act
      Dene medicine power
      Long-term effects of abuse
      Twist of faith
      Use the higher power to heal
      Resources to help
      Overview
      Conclusions
      References.
    Session Timeout
    New Session