The Survivors Speak

Religious training
“I was so terrified of hell.”
Religious observation and religious training were central to residential school life. Noel
Starblanket recalled that prayer was a dominant aspect at the Qu’Appelle school.
And then we’d finish, and we’d go to our, back to our playrooms, they called them,
and we’d sit there until it was ready for class, then we’d go up for class, and when
we sat down in class, they made us pray again. We have to pray. So, then we’d, we’d,
we’d have our classes, and then, and then the noon bell rang, and we could hear the
church bells. They have a big church there. Those bells would ring, and we’d have to
pray again before we left the classroom. I think they called it the Angelus, or something
like that. So, we’d pray again, and then we’d go to lunch, and, and before, when
we sat down, they’d make us pray again. So, we prayed, and then we went back to our
class, got ready for our playroom, went back, got ready for our class, class again in the
afternoon. We went to class, they’d make us pray again, and then we’d go through our
instructions, and then after school we’d come back, and they had, we had free time
’til about five or so, and then, then the nun would blow the whistle, and we’d have to
come running in. 294
Antonette White resented the amount of time that was given to religious observances at
the Kuper Island residential school. “I think the worst thing, is the praying. It’s, it’s like you
pray, pray, pray, and yet there’s still no peace in that
prayer of what they made you do.” 295
Geraldine Archie said that at the residential school
she attended,
they made us pray from morning until night, and
we used to pray when we got up in the morning,
and pray before we ate breakfast, and then pray
again before we went and started class, and pray
again when we went home, went downstairs for
lunch, and prayed again to go to afternoon class,
and then prayed again before supper, prayed again
before bedtime. I was always kneeling down and I
developed calluses on my knees. The schools were
all the same there. 296
Antonette White.
Roger Cromarty had similar memories of the daily routine at the Sioux Lookout school.