FIve Little Indians

(I wrote this two years ago, but didn’t know what to do with it. It’s more of a “testimony” than a book review, I guess. But now I’ve got this blog, so here you go.)

I have a suggestion for anyone looking for something to do in observance of our first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. I read a book this summer that opened my eyes, and washed them with tears. It is called “Five Little Indians” and it was written by Michelle Good. I cried publicly on multiple occasions whilst listening to this audiobook on my morning walk/jogs.

It’s a novel about five people imprisoned as children in a northern Vancouver Island residential school and how their lives subsequently played out after they escaped or aged out, and eventually ended up in the East Hastings area of Vancouver. There are tales of happy reunions that crumble into relapses into addiction and self-destructive behaviour.

I’ve heard the facts and recognized the tragedy, but this book helped me understand what happened to individual people and to their culture. I learned how Canada’s official program of cultural engineering, carried out over multiple generations, essentially destroyed not only their cultures but the families and the personalities of the individuals.

This book helped me see how multiple generations of real individual people, their families, and their culture, were profoundly damaged, leaving a legacy of mental illness, addiction, and hopelessness. The essential support of family and culture was methodically removed and replaced by inadequate bureaucracy. We not only hurt these children but made sure they could not be healed.

I’m starting to understand the answer to the question people used to ask, but don’t any more: “Why can’t they just get over it?” The events described in this book happened during my own lifetime. I grew up thinking there was something wrong with “Indians”. It turns out there was, and this is how it happened. In fact, it was happening right in front of me.

Ok, I’ve gotten all preachy and political, but it’s actually a good story. You should read it.