The Survivors Speak

Improvements
“There was a lot more freedom.”
In 1969, the federal government restructured the residential school system. The
schools usually were divided into two, separate entities: a government-run school and a
church-administered residence. Beginning in the 1970s, agreements were reached under
which Aboriginal organizations took over the operation of several of the institutions. Greg
Rainville attended the Qu’Appelle school while these transformations were taking place.
I’ve seen the, where the priests and nuns controlled the school. I was there when Indian
Affairs took control of the residential school, and was there when Native Control
started. But the most, the nuns there, when the nuns and the priests were there, there
was, things got better after they left. They weren’t perfect, but there was still abuse
when Indian Affairs control. A lot of things were, weren’t addressed, or, or made
known to people, ’cause it was always hush-hush.
Rainville said the change from church to Indian Affairs administration brought about
an improvement in personal freedom and food at the school.
When the nuns were there, we were just like a jail. There was a big fence all around.
You couldn’t leave. Yeah, we had black and white tvs. We had, we didn’t go no place.
Everything that we had was either outside in the yard, or in the gym. But when Indian
Affairs got there, we, we were allowed to go maybe downtown to the hardware store,
where we would have pop at the, in the café there in Lebret. You were allowed to do
that. Before you weren’t even allowed to go. You know if you’re caught downtown,
you were in trouble. But there was a lot more freedom. We used to get to go to driveins,
movies.
When the nuns were there, everything was just, I don’t know, everything was hamburger-based.
Everything was we ate the whole year was either mush, hamburgers,
whatever, maybe the odd chicken, or odd ham. But with Indian Affairs, our food started,
like, we had pork chops, we had boiled potatoes, stuff you could identify. Like,
then when Native Control came to be, again we were back to hamburger, like, you
know, from hamburger to steak, to hamburger again. That was, that’s the only way I
could describe the different times people were there. 730
Ronalee Lavallee attended the Grayson, Saskatchewan, school in the 1960s and 1970s,
and then worked at the school for twenty-two years as a child-care worker. She recalled a
change in attitude at the school when it came under band management. “When our First
Nation took over the boarding school, and the nuns were no longer there and the priest,