Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (Feb 01/99) - Rebecca Williams, the assistant deputy minister of justice in Nunavut, said last week that not all residential schools were terrible.

Williams, a former student of the federally-run school in Churchill, Manitoba, said her experience gave her the direction she needed in life and taught her a number of new skills.

While she acknowledged the terrible abuses that did occur to students at similar institutions, Williams said she was thankful for her four years of education.

News/North: You say that not all residential schools were terrible places for the people that attended them. You went to one of those schools?

Williams: I think for many years now we've been hearing about how terrible it was to be in a residential school. I went to Churchill, Manitoba, and spent four years in the hostel. To me, it was very much a learning environment and it was because my parents wanted me not to smoke and go to church. They made sure those things happened when you went to school there. They discouraged smoking and they made you go to church and it got into a routine for us.

The whole focus of being there was that you were there to learn something and the term they used was pull up your socks and do your best. When I heard about that, I didn't really know what that meant and for years, I didn't know what it had to do with my socks.

I learned that they expected that from us and they wanted the best from us. That shows in the people who went to Churchill school. Many of them are leaders today. Many went to take trades so they have jobs or they went for academic education if they wanted to do that. It was a very good start for us. I went into the nursing program.

Something did happen to one of the students by a male supervisor and we were told that Mr. so-and-so would not be here again because he did something to one of the students.

News/North: He was fired automatically?

Williams: Yes and we were told about it. They were open about these things. I have no knowledge about people being physically abused or even psychologically or mentally.

It was very positive because I see many, many of those students today working and doing something for their communities and their own people.

The church played a big part, the Anglican and the Catholic church.

News/North: Who ran the school?

Williams: The federal government ran the school, it had nothing to do with the church. But, there was a church in the community and we had to go there.

The long-time Anglican minister that is here today in Iqaluit, Roger Briggs, and another one who helped, David Aglukark, were role models for us. David Aglukark played a guitar in the church and it was fun to be there and he spoke in Inuktitut.

I had a very positive and good start if I wanted to do something other than be a mother.

We need to balance that not all residential schools are that terrible. I'm sure there are many more (that are positive) and we are just not speaking about it.

I think we owe the good experience that we had to the federal government and certainly to Roger Briggs who helped us through. He was open to talk to us if we had some difficulties.

When I first went there, I was given a ski jacket and I thought I had to wear it and I did. I learned a different language and I ate different. People might think that was assimilation and it was assimilation to something else, but what I gained from it was that I learned other ways of doing things, other ways of living. I knew that I was Inuk but I was just learning something else.

In time, it did have an impact on me because I did not feel good about being Inuk. I wanted to become Qallunaaq. I think that had something to do with when we went there, everything we had was replaced by something else. That didn't leave very much of me to feel good about. Everything I was doing was replaced by something else. For a period of time, I was angry because I didn't feel good about myself. Now that I can think of the times past, I'm glad I went to school because I learned something that I would never have known. That doesn't hurt me.

News/North: Do you feel like they took something away from you by showing you these new things?

Williams: I don't think so because I think the part that was good for us was because we were older. Most of us were over the age of 12 and a lot of us were 16, 17 and 18 years old. When we went, we had a very solid foundation from home. Our parents knew only one way of living and that was Inuktitut. We knew that kind of life when we went, we were quite solid and then we started learning other things. If you were five years old, that would have been different.

News/North: Was it hard for you to leave home?

Williams: I was almost 15 years old when I went. It was actually exciting because it was adventure for me and my cousin Alice, we went together. Alice had been in the hospital before this and I used to think it would be nice to go somewhere. We went to Resolute and waited for other students so we could get on a bigger plane and go to Churchill. It was exciting, it was fun. It was going on a big trip and we didn't know what was going to happen, just that we would be in school.

My mother was sad and we were lonely when we went because we had no telephone contact. There were no telephones in the communities and in Arctic Bay in the '60s, you would probably get two mail planes a year that parachute the mail to the community. You would only get two letters a year.

There were a lot of things we didn't like but there were good lessons.

News/North: Is it these good lessons that made you so successful now?

Williams: I don't label myself as very successful. I'm doing the best that I can for me and my family. I'm like anybody else. As far as being able to work and going for further education, it played a big part in my life.

There was one little negative thing that was implanted on me. When I learned how to speak a little bit of English, when I went back to my own community, I came across as that I knew everything. I know more than anybody else because I could speak another language.

Pretty soon I was working for government and people and myself viewed that as being better than other people. Many of us started to think we were like Qallunaaq because we could do what they can, to the point that we didn't listen to what the communities needed or to our parents. The way I am today, four years in Churchill had a lot of impact.