Shirley Sterling (1948–2005)

My Name is Seepeetza is the diary of 12 year old girl’s experiences as a sixth grader at the Kalamak (Kamloops) Indian Residential School in British Columbia in 1958. The entries, based on the author’s own experiences at the school, give the reader an idea of what everyday life was like for Indigenous students forced to attend these schools. Diary entries capture the confusion and fear of first being admitted to the school, and the cold, and often cruel, nuns. They detail the taunts of fellow students due to her whiter skin, and the indoctrination of Christian theology over the complete denial of her Indigenous culture. The entries also include the times where she is at home on the family’s ranch in BC’s Cariboo region, living with multiple generations of her family, exploring the land and just being a kid.

The entries will provide young readers with examples of how these schools tried to eradicate Indigenous culture. There are also examples of intergenerational trauma as many relations attended the school. Her father, who struggles with alcoholism, speaks six Indigenous languages, but won’t teach her them because he knows she will be punished for speaking them at school as he was.

The entries allude to other abuses but do not go into detail, so it is a good entry point for younger readers to understand residential schools. For adults, and older students, there is Behind Closed Doors, where adult survivors of the same Kamloops Residential School share their legacy of trauma, including physical, sexual and emotional abuse.… (mehr)