Linda Young

Bio

My name is Mary Ann Linda Young.  I speak Plains Cree ‘Y’ dialect and am originally from Onion Lake Cree Nation. I lived with my great grandparents until I was five years old, that is when my great grandfather took me to Saint Anthony’s (Roman Catholic) Indian Residential School to live as a boarder until 1966. My great grandfather, my grandparents, my mother and I (including my siblings) all attended Saint Anthony’s Indian Residential School, four generations, 66 years altogether.  

As a Traditional Knowledge Keeper, a friend, a student, an artist, a relative, a mother and grandmother, I have told and retold my Residential School story many times.  Sometimes it is hard to share, and other times it doesn’t seem to be hard, but then I feel the pain of the memory days later. 

Abstract

At residential school, every boarder had a job to do. Sister said to me that if I finished my work early, I could spend the rest of the afternoon looking at View-Master slides. There were a dozen boxed sets on the table – so many choices.  I spent my winter in the sewing room sitting by the window with the View-Master in hand.  The three-dimensional effect of looking through View-Master slides invited me into a world that I would otherwise not have known existed. Classroom learning in Residential School was mostly angst-ridden, so I treasured my self-directed history and social studies lessons on Saturdays. Given its significance, I use the View-Master as the portal into my residential school story.  

There were 11 steps to climb to get to the front doors of Saint Anthony's Indian Residential School. I use these steps to represent the various stages of assimilation that occurred, as children were forcibly removed from family, home place, language and culture.  Every step taken was to kill the Indian in the child. In the video I created to tell my residential school story, I use the steps to represent what was taken, what replaced what was taken, and how we can reclaim what was taken to strengthen Indigenous education for students, families, and communities.