VANCOUVER —
Warning: This story contains details some readers may find disturbing.
In a world filled with written words, not being able to read them can be terrifying.
For Linda Jack, an Indigenous elder, it’s also isolating and overwhelming.
“I can’t read or write,” Jack said. “When I walk down the street, go into stores and all that stuff, it’s pretty hard for me.”
Jack is a Cowichan elder, living on the traditional territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation.
When she was a child, she was forced to attend St. Catherine’s Day School in Duncan, B.C.
“They didn’t help me learn at all. I felt like I was just tossed around from class to class with no one caring about my education.”
St. Catherine’s was one of Canada’s 699 federally operated Indian Day Schools. They were established in 1920 and it’s estimated close to 200,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis attended.
Like residential schools, day schools stripped Indigenous children of their culture and heritage.
Jack said when she was caught speaking her traditional language she was severely punished. “They pulled out some of my teeth after catching me talk in my own language.”
Along with physical assaults, Jack said there was sexual abuse at the school she went too.
“I tried to commit suicide when I was growing up, like I must have been nine or 10 when I landed in the hospital,” Jack said while holding back tears. “Because all of that sexual abuse that was happening to me. It…
