THE INTERVIEWER: We’ll begin. If you could just tell me what your name is and say and spell your name for me.
EUNICE GREY : Eh bien, je m'appelle Eunice Gray ; Eunice
Gris. Je vis à Tikamik (sp?), Alberta, dans la réserve.
Q. D'accord. D'où viens-tu?
A. I’m from Whitefish Lake, Tikamik (ph.). It’s the same thing.
Q. That’s where you were born.
A. Yeah. That’s where I went to school.
Q. Quelle école avez-vous fréquentée?
A. I went to St. Andrew’s Anglican Mission.
Q. Quelles années y êtes-vous?
A. I was there from the time I was —
I’m seventy-four now. I was there from when I was 8 years old until I was sixteen.
Q. En quelle année cela aurait-il été ?
A. ’48. I don’t know how old. When I was sixteen, anyway.
Q. Vous souvenez-vous du premier jour où vous y êtes allé ?
A. I kind of remember in a way because it was my mom that took me there. My mom took me there. I used to cry for my dad. I didn’t cry for my mom when she would come and see me, only my dad. My dad told my mom to take me, to put me in the Mission because my parents were told that I had to go in.
Q. Vous souvenez-vous de ce qu'aurait été une journée type à l'école ?
A. We used to only go to school from one to 3:30. We didn’t go to school all day long. The little ones, they went to school in the morning and the older girls, we all went to school from one to 3:30. We used to always have a half an hour to play, or whatever, and then we would have to go prepare the meals for the rest of the children and the staff.
We used to have our parents come and see us. They would bring something, like eat with them. There used to be a special place there where our parents could bring some kind of food, or something, and we could eat with them. That was on Saturdays. But some of the kids’ parents never showed up, so we used to share with the kids.
Q. Et vos parents ?
A. My mother used to always come. My dad didn’t come because he used to look after the store. We had a bunch of minks, and stuff, and cattle. I used to cry for him if he came.
Q. Est-il jamais venu ?
R. Il venait de temps en temps. A Noël, il m'apportait quelque chose.
Q. Ça devait être agréable de pouvoir les voir quand ils viendraient.
A. Um-hmm. But we weren’t that closed in the Anglican Mission there. We weren’t totally closed in from our parents because we could see them Saturdays if they came.
Q. Votre mère venait-elle la plupart du temps ?
A. If she didn’t have anything to do she would come because there were my 4 other sisters. She had to look after the younger ones. She couldn’t come all the time. She had kids to look after.
Q. Comment c'était à l'école pour vous ?
A. It was a home. We had to work hard. We had to wash floors on our knees. We had to wash clothes with a washboard. We had to stand there and iron the clothes, hang them up outside. We did all the sewing and stuff. We were just like a mother would work at home. That’s how we looked after —
Toutes les filles plus âgées s'occupaient des plus jeunes. Les membres du personnel et les filles plus âgées, nous nous sommes occupés de tout le monde. Ils ont juste fait la supervision. Nous avons fait tout le travail, toute la cuisine et tout, nous avons tout fait. Les petits, ils n'ont jamais rien fait. Ils ont eu une belle vie !
Q. Vous étiez un petit à un moment donné ?
R. Oui. Comme quand tu as seize ans, tu pars. Et puis ces autres, les seniors, c'était comme ça. C'était juste comme quelque chose qui tournait en rond, qui tournait. Comme si beaucoup avaient seize ans au cours de l'année, puis ils partiraient.
When you were sixteen —
Chaque été, nous étions autorisés à rentrer chez nous pendant 2 mois. Nous avons tout pris. Nous avons dépouillé notre lit. Nous avons pris tout ce qui était sur notre lit, même les oreillers. Seuls le matelas et le lit y sont restés. Et tous nos vêtements, nous emportions tout ça à la maison. Et puis quand nous allions à la mission en septembre, ils nous donnaient de la literie fraîche et des trucs.
Q. Est-ce que vous attendiez avec impatience de rentrer à la maison en été?
A. In a way we did and in a way it was more like a home because that was the only home we really knew. Some of the staff members were good. Some were mean. The bad ones always got it. Other than that it was a home. You know, everybody gets in trouble when they’re at home.
Q. Qu'entendez-vous par les mauvais l'ont toujours eu ?
A. Well, there were some bad kids who did all kinds of things. They didn’t listen, and stuff like that. They used to get a strap with a ruler, this way (indicating) not that way. We would put our hands like that (indicating). Always the one that starts never got it. It’s the ones that got caught, they would get it. That used to hurt if you get hit here (indicating) in school.
Q. Et pour vous-même, vous souvenez-vous que cela vous est arrivé ?
R. Je pense que j'ai eu cela à quelques reprises dont je me souviens.
Q. Il semble que vous ayez travaillé très dur dans cette maison ?
A. We did work hard. We did everything. Now today my knees bother me. I’ve got arthritis bad. We used to have to hang clothes up. It didn’t matter how cold it was, we would have to go hang the clothes up. And before we went to bed we had to bring them all in and hang them up inside.
Q. Aviez-vous beaucoup d'amis à l'école ?
A. Oh yeah, the girls. We had no choice. Like today now we used to have to finish at a certain time. You had to finish your work. Like today now I can’t —
If I start doing something I have to finish it. I learned that from being in the Mission. Anything you do, you have to finish. It doesn’t matter what it is. At least the way I look at it is we were taught how to work, you know, and be responsible for the things you do. It don’t matter how mean the staff were, we still learned something.
Q. Et ils étaient méchants ?
A. Some were mean and some weren’t. Every year they changed. Only the Matron never changed. The Minister, he was always the same one. We could hear him coming. He used to have asthma real bad and you could hear him breathing. From far you could hear him.
Q. Comment était-il ?
A. He wasn’t bad. He was nice. He was kind. But he had to strap us when we were bad. That was his job.
Q. Et la matrone ?
R. La matrone était plus comme une infirmière, la matrone était comme une infirmière. Plus tard, je pense que quand j'avais quatorze ans, je travaillais tout le temps dans la cuisine et plus tard, quand j'avais quatorze ans, elle est partie et elle s'est mariée avec un gars qui était paralysé et qui était sur ce lit spécial. C'était comme un carré. C'était tout en chrome et tout ça. Ses mains étaient toutes paralysées. Il restait toujours sur le lit. Il n'est jamais sorti de là.
The last couple of years, that’s all I did was look after her husband.
Q. Comment était la matrone en tant que personne ?
A. She was cranky, but she wasn’t bad. She was nice. She could be nice if she wanted to be. She was kind to me because I looked after her husband for her.
Q. Elle a dû comprendre cela.
A. Ouais.
Q. Donc, le personnel dont vous avez dit qu'il allait changer ?
A. Every year there were different ones. The teacher was always the same one and the Matron was always the same one. But the boys —
It was a lady who looked after the boys and the girls, we all had different —
The little girls and the big girls, it was different. The big boys and the little boys. The little boys got it good and the little girls. It’s the older ones that did the work. They got it.
Q. Et le professeur. Comment était le professeur ?
A. She was nice. She wasn’t bad, not really bad. She was nice.
Q. Cela a dû être intéressant en septembre quand vous reveniez à l'école chaque année, en vous demandant qui serait le personnel.
A. Yeah, it was always different ones. But the teacher was always the same, and the Matron, she didn’t leave because of her crippled husband. She always stayed.
It wasn’t really that bad staying in the Mission. It was just the work, eh. We always had to work hard, especially washing clothes was the hardest, and the floors, because the boys clothes were always so hard to wash on the washboard, the boys pants, and that.
Et les couvertures étaient difficiles à laver. C'était comme un esclave.
Q. That’s what it sounds like to me is that you learned how to work very very hard.
A. Yeah. I’ve always worked hard. I raised my kids by myself. I was a single parent. My husband and I broke up. So I raised the kids. I worked hard in Edmonton raising my family. Then after they were all —
Quand mon plus jeune avait dix-huit ans, je suis retourné dans la réserve.
But I wasn’t sorry I went in the Mission. I learned lots.
Q. Did you have friends there who experienced other things, who didn’t have very good experiences, or were you —
A. Not that I know of. More or less everybody was treated the same. It wasn’t bad, really. Because the little kids, they were treated good. I didn’t see anything bad with the younger ones. All they did was went to school and played. It’s the older ones that had to do all the hard work.
Q. Donc, vous pensez que le travail acharné que vous avez appris à faire lorsque vous étiez à l'école était bon pour vous plus tard dans la vie, aussi ?
A. Yeah. I looked after my family. I still look after them, even though I’m in a wheelchair and use a walker, I still look after my house. I live by myself.
Q. I’m curious why you decided to move back to the Reserve after your kids had grown up.
A. They didn’t need me. (Laughter) I thought, you know, my dad always said that you can’t always have your kids around you. One of these days you’re going to die and what are they going to do if they are always right beside you all the time. So I thought, well, they’re all on their own, I’ll step away. But they came to me!
There’s only 2 of them that live in the city now.
Q. Et les autres ?
R. Ils vivent tous dans la réserve !
Q. So they couldn’t live without you?
A. Non. (Rires)
Q. Alors, quand vous aviez seize ans, votre dernière année, vous souvenez-vous de votre dernière année à l'école ?
A. Yeah, because I was looking after that crippled guy. I had an easy life the last 2 years. That’s all I did was look after the old man, there. I don’t know if he was old or not. He was crippled up. I had to polish his bed. It was full of chrome on the outside. It was a real fancy bed.
Q. Je suppose que vous avez tout fait pour lui, alors.
A. Ouais.
Q. Et puis, au moment de quitter l'école, c'était comment ?
R. Il détestait me voir partir. Il a dit que j'étais très gentil et qu'il me respectait pour ce que j'avais fait pour lui.
Q. Et pour vous-même, en sortant de l'école ?
A. I didn’t mind. When I left the Mission I went to Athabasca and worked in a restaurant.
Q. Bien sûr, vous seriez payé de l'argent pour travailler au lieu de travailler à l'école ?
R. Je devais gagner ma vie. Personne ne va me nourrir pour rien.
Ma mère et moi ne nous sommes jamais entendus. J'étais le mouton noir de la famille. Ma mère n'y allait que pour les autres enfants, les plus jeunes.
Q. Et vous êtes l'aîné ?
A. I’m the oldest; yeah. That’s why I was closer to my dad because of the way my mom treated me. And then when I came back on the Reserve I was the one that took my mom in and looked after her until she died. But that lady wanted me to say that.
My dad used to talk to me a lot. We was talking about this Residential School stuff. He was raised in the Anglican Mission, too, in Mr. White’s days. That was the first Minister that was there, Mr. White. That’s when my dad was there. And he said, “You know, if we weren’t Treaties we wouldn’t be in this mess, you wouldn’t be in the Mission.” “Only Treaties go in the Mission.” The government takes the kids, the half breeds. He said, “They don’t bother with them because they’re not Treaties.” But if a half breed, a Metis, or something like that was to go into the Mission, their parents had to pay to be put in there. Or orphans, they used to put them in the Mission.
But what really started was the government paid for the Treaties to be raised in the Mission. I don’t know why, but that’s how it was.
Like that guy was talking about, saying Metis this and Metis that. I don’t think he really understood what happened a long time ago. If you weren’t a Treaty you couldn’t be in the Mission unless your parents were willing to pay for you to stay there. That was the way the government put it for the people. But he worded it different.
I was telling that lady that. I said that he didn’t get that straight. Because there were 2 or 3 in St. Andrew’s that had the same thing. We had 2 or 3 Metis Colony kids and their parents had to pay. It wasn’t much, but at least it paid for their meals and stuff. I guess you would say —
Like today it’s your meals, eh. But I don’t know what they paid for; room and board, I guess.
Q. Votre père vous a-t-il beaucoup parlé de son expérience à l'école?
A. Well, my dad always talked about the flu a long time ago. Him and Mr. White and another guy, they used to across the river, they call it Big Lake, and there’s another Reserve at the other side of the lake there. They helped Mr. White go and put water and wood for the sick. When they would enter the place sometimes they were all dead. Sometimes there would be one that wasn’t and they used to just wrap them up in cotton blankets there – I don’t know what they are really called. They had blankets and they would wrap them up in there and throw them in the sleigh, the big sleigh, and then they would cut wood for whoever was still alive, and water. They used to do that to all the houses. He said it used to be pitiful watching them. He said, “I don’t know how I ever got away with it that I never got that flu.” People were dying.
He used to work with Mr. White who was the Minister in those days when that flu was around. But he was raised in the Mission, too. My dad always looked at other people and he always had them —
Il leur a fait couper le bois, ou quelque chose du genre, et il les a payés. Il aidait toujours les autres. Il s'occupait de sa propre famille, ainsi que d'autres personnes. Il a essayé de les aider. Il a toujours été comme ça. Parce qu'on lui a appris cela, à ne pas vraiment se regarder mais à regarder au-delà de lui-même.
Q. Est-il toujours en vie ?
A. No. He died in ’87 I think.
Q. Était-ce avant votre retour ?
A. Before I went back. Yeah, I went home in ’83. Now I’m still there. But now my working days are over. I’m getting all crippled up.
Q. Il semble que vous ayez passé beaucoup de temps dans votre vie à travailler dur.
R. J'ai travaillé ici à l'hôpital pendant 9 ans avant de déménager à Edmonton. Ensuite, à Edmonton, j'étais gardien. J'ai fait toutes sortes de travaux.
Que voulez-vous savoir d'autre?
Q. Avez-vous autre chose à dire ?
R. Non.
Q. I’m curious. Do you feel that your experience at school, the Mission school, was something that you needed to heal from, you know?
A. I know what you mean. My kids are always saying, “You’re not in Residential School now.” Just like my late husband there, he went through hell because they were mean to him in Grouard. When he left us, me and the kids, I raised 8 kids all by myself, I worked and raised them all and he had the easy life doing nothing.
But I ain’t sorry I raised my kids by myself. It’s a good experience. I think going to the Mission was a good experience. There were hard times and good times. But I think if you help yourself you can get healed. You can heal yourself. You’ve just got to put your mind up to it. That’s how I take it.
My family was wrecked because of alcohol. I don’t know if the Mission —
He went to school in Grouard and that’s where the mean ones were. I don’t know if that wrecked his home life. I don’t know. It’s hard to talk for him. But I have a tape at home that he had made I guess and he talks about his life in the Mission. His life in the Mission was what wrecked his family life. That’s what he said on there. So I don’t know. It’s so long ago.
Q. D'accord. J'apprécie que vous nous parliez aujourd'hui. C'était très gentil de votre part.
A. Ouais.
Q. Bien à vous.
Un merci.
— End of Interview