The Fallen Feather - Kinetic Video

The Strapping I got when I
was absent, when I run away.
That was the first one. Kids
count it; I didn’t count it
because it was so painful. I
got 50 lashes on my back.
And that Reverend Father
O’grady, it’s OK if I say the
words because it’s true. It
happened. See. And he
became a bishop later. But
that man gave me 50 lashes
on my back. I couldn’t sit down for three weeks maybe more. It hurt. Right in
the dormitory, in front of everybody, just lay over my bead, took my night shirt up
and give it to me.
Ernie Philip
And if our children are listening to me talking about how cruel they were in the
Residential School. You know we got strapped with a wide strap like that on our
hands until it bled up here if we spoke our language. We got a real good
strapping on each hand. And if that didn’t work you got it on your backside. You
couldn’t even sit for days; just blue. And then, my ear this one I was never able
to hear, I must have been around 7 or 8 years old when the Nun hit me. And I
heard a loud pop in my ear. And that night it just ached and ached and she
came and she start hitting me saying ‘your keeping the kids awake‘. She thought
I was lonesome and crying to go home. I said my ear is aching, she through an
aspirin at me and put the pillow over my head. And I cried and cried and I guess
I finally fell asleep. But it started festering inside. And they didn’t do nothing
about it until it turned into impetigo, my whole ear was infected and up into my
hair. And I landed in the hospital for a month. And the Nun started yelling at us.
‘Stop, stop!’ But we didn’t know what stop meant. We didn’t know a word of
English. All we spoke was our language. And they told us that we had to speak
the English language, we were not allowed to speak our own language.
Dr Mary Thomas
It’s significant that the Government would intervene to ensure that Native
Children abandon their language, but cared very little about the health or
wellbeing for these children.
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