Photos:
Canada / PA-023093
To the left:
To the right: Indian residential school. [Fort] Resolution, N.W.T. Credit: Canada. Dept. of Mines and Technical Surveys / Library and Archives Canada / PA023095
Boys Dormitory, Industrial School, High River, Alberta Credit: S.A. Smyth / Canada. Dept. of Mines and Technical Surveys / Library and Archives
A Day in the Life of a Residential School Student
by Kelsey Bird-Quinney
“While they were in the same room, they could not acknowledge one another, even saying hello to your sister could get you in trouble.”
10 | NEW TRIBE Special Edition | Spring 2012
6:30 am: wake up and make beds. “It was military style, the nuns had to be able to bounce a dime off your bed, they would make sure of this,” says Ted Quinney a residential school survivor who attended Blue Quills Residential School near St. Paul, Alberta. After making their beds, students would then leave the sleeping quarters, and go to their dayroom, where they would retrieve their school clothes from their assigned lockers. “Everything that we owned while we were there had a number sewn onto it, or was written in black marker,” says Quinney. Once students were washed up and changed, one boy would begin to recite the rosary. “We said the rosary once a day, every day,” and they would do so until they were informed that breakfast was done. From the dayroom, the boys would form two lines of smallest to tallest, and walk to the cafeteria. Just like their belongings, students had assigned seating that was marked with their number. Here was one of the only times where the girls and boys could be in the same room. While they were in the same room, they could not acknowledge one another, even saying hello to your sister could get you in trouble. Before the children could eat, another prayer was said, and they were all expected to have proper etiquette. Manners were strictly enforced such as no talking while eating, no elbows on the table and finishing all of their food. When everyone was finished, another prayer was said in thanks. The boys would return to their dayroom, walking in lines of two, “we always travelled through the school that way; we were not allowed to