Wawahte (177 pages) tells the experiences of Indian Residential School survivors who trusted me to write their stories. Their childhood was much the same as those of more than 150,000 Aboriginal children who, between 1883 and 1996, were forced to attend one of 130 residential schools and equally degrading day schooling in Canada. Written in two parts, Wawahte also mines the history of how the opinion of a handful of people became widely accepted by a nation, giving rise to official programs that were publicly touted as beneficial, but which actually discriminated against entire ethnic groups. By writing Wawahte, I hope to create a dialogue for people to realize the impact of forced integration/residential school.
Chief Robert Joseph, Executive Director of the Indian Residential School Survivor Society, British Columbia, said of my book, “A story that truly belongs in the public domain and in all Canadian high schools.” Wawahte is recommended as a cultural awareness training resource