A recent CBC article focusing on Arthur Bear Chief, a former residential student and author, discusses the motivations for the writing of his book, My decade at Old Sun, My lifetime in Hell. Bear Chief expresses how his painful residential school experiences have remained with him throughout the course of his life despite nearly sixty years passing. After reliving his past during an examination for discovery, Bear Chief decided to put his story to paper and began to document his story.
The process of documentation and story telling is vital a one, these stories allow groups of people the ability to form social memory and history by allowing future generations to understand and read about their ancestral past (Carter 215). Arthur Bear Chief, a man of native heritage, is a part of a marginalized group that has experienced great hardship at the hands of the historically dominant Canadians. His experience is not unique unfortunately, with an estimated 150,000 First Nation, Inuit and Metis children also attending residential schools (Miller 1). The need to tell this collective story was also a motivation for Bear Chief, as he felt that someone who had experienced these schools first hand would be the best to tell their story. He also explains his greater purpose of giving a voice to the fellow students who had not lived through it as he had, stating “I felt that with my voice, they had a voice too. As if the spirits were talking to me and saying, Write it. Write it. People want to hear.” (Bear Chief). The decision to use his voice is a significant one. This is because marginalized people or groups can break the silences that surround parts of history that are untold or misrepresented by the more dominant society, who are in control of record keeping and archival documents (Carter 216). Carter defines silences as the means societies’ powerful use to control access to archives, which can have significant impact on the ability of marginalized groups to form memory and identity (Carter 215). In sharing his story, Bear Chief breaks silences that surround the history and impact of residential schools, this process also allows those with relatives of the school system the ability to better comprehend their families history and the affect it may have had on those involved. Bear Chief explains that in writing his story he has made progress in healing some of the damage that has been done but that the process is a difficult one.
The work that Arthur Bear Chief does in My decade at Old Sun, My lifetime in Hell is extremely important. First-hand accounts of residential schools are necessary to understanding and repairing the damage inflicted on current and successive generations of first nations. In sharing his story, Bear Chief may break silences that currently exist and bring a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves.
Works Cited
“Arthur Bear Chief on the devastating experience of writing about being a residential school student.” CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 07 Feb. 2017. Web. 19 Mar. 2017.
Carter, Rodney G. S. “Of Things Said and Unsaid: Power, Archival Silences, and Power in Silence.” Archivaria, no. 61, 2006, pp. 215-233.
J.R. Miller “Residential Schools” The Canadian Encyclopedia. Eds. Tabitha Marshall. Toronto: Historica Canada, 2012. Web. 19 Mar. 2017.
