RRHS students meet an author many have studied

By Ken Johnston
Editor

How many high school students ever get the chance to meet the author of a novel they have studied? Probably not very many but last Wednesday the grade 9 English students, as well as the rest of the student body did just that!
Author Beatrice Mosionier first sat in a sharing circle with the grade nine class who studied her book “In Search of April Raintree.” Then she spoke to an assembly of the entire school which allowed many students who had studied the book in previous years the same opportunity as the current ones; to meet Mosionier. The book has been taught by teacher Jenelle Lowes for the past five or six years in grade nine english.
Mosionier, a Metis author, grew up in Manitoba. She spoke of her experience being taken away from her family at the age of three. The youngest of four kids, she lost two of her sisters to suicide. One in 1964 when Mosionier was 14. Later in October of 1980 she lost another one to suicide. “I felt this was too much for one family to bear and decided to do something about it.”
Many questions came to her. “Why were my parents alcoholics? Why did they put me in foster care? Why was I raped in foster care?” said Mosionier.
She explained that growing up in white foster homes she wanted to be white. “I read history books (written by white people) and I believed them. They did not portray native people very positively.” But her brother said something that resonates with her to this day. “He thought of us as apples. Red on the outside, white on the inside but with little brown seeds that grow. He was right.”
The girl that wanted to be white started to grow brown when her second sister took her life. “I decided to write a book in my 30’s about two sisters; one that wanted to pass as white and the other seeing through native eyes.” Much of it relating to her own personal experiences. Mosionier had to do a great deal of research after having much of her traditional culture pushed away in her childhood; having been raised in white foster homes.
“I did a great deal of research reading books like “Reservations are for Indians” by Heather Robertson. She also had many things come to her one of which she read to the RRHS students last week. “This is addressed to the white man. ‘Instead of repaying us with gratitude (for welcoming them to their land and sharing it with them) you turned on us with your advanced weapondry and trickery.When we realized your intentions we went to war and were called savages and our battles massacres. When your advanced weapons, perfected over many years, could not be defeated we turned to treaties and ran into your cunning trickery. Now you destroy the Mother Earth we took care of for centuries. Mother Earth is dying because of your greed and search for power, progress and profits... We (Native peoples) are dying. Our land is dying. (White man) respect the land and take care of it. When our Indian wisdom dies the white man will not be far behind.”
Mosionier said the drinking her parents did was a result of the constant racism they experienced, being Native, on a daily basis. While it is a disease, the alcohol helped them cope with the racism and the way of life the treaties left them.
“Natives signed treaties for centuries. They believed giving your word meant something,” said Mosionier, “But we believed we would live independently beside the white man but soon we were put on reserves in muskeg or swamplands. We were told to give up our traditional ways and told to farm.”
Then when Indians wanted schools on the reserves government and churches took over with residential schools. They took kids from their families off the reserves and forced them not to speak traditional languages. Then Indian Agents were placed on reserves to monitor and prevent residents from carrying on traditional ways.
Mosionier never imagined her book would be published. And then when it was, 25 years ago, she thought it would be only read by Metis women. However, she has been approached by so many people who said, “This is my story to. Many non-natives have also said now they can see how things really were for Natives.”
“There is a lot of meanness in society, even to this day. It doesn’t have to be there. People need to treat people with dignity and respect and that comes back to you in a good way,” Mosionier told the assembly.
Teacher Jenelle Lowes said the book has really affected many of her students. “Many of them can relate these experiences to their personal lives. Many have been emotionally impacted.”
“I have had many non-native people write me letters after reading April Raintree saying they thought they had it bad but did not. I do not see myself as a victim anymore and am glad the book has had the effects it has.”