Paul Bickford
Northern News Services

Fort Smith (Apr 29/02) - Sister Agnes Sutherland is a living legend in Fort Smith. An educator, social activist and the author of five books, her association with Fort Smith, and many other areas of the NWT, goes back as far as 1957. Today, the 76-year-old is still very active in the community.

News/North: Why did you become a nun?

Sister Agnes Sutherland: I guess it started because my first teachers were sisters, and I really wanted to be a teacher. That's all I wanted to be for as long as I can remember. Since they were teachers, I thought everybody teaching were sisters. Then I wanted my Dad to come to church. My Dad was an Anglican. He wasn't really going to church and I started getting after him. So I promised the Lord that, if my Dad came to pray with us, I would be a nun."

N/N: Where did you grow up?

AS: I grew up in Fort Chipewyan. My Dad was a buffalo ranger. Today they call them park wardens. My Dad was probably one of the first buffalo rangers in the North.... I didn't know what a buffalo was, but my Dad was a cowboy singer, so I thought he was riding buffalo around singing cowboy songs."

N/N: When did you arrive in Fort Smith?

AS: In 1957. They were opening what they called the Federal School at that time here. The government wanted to make sure they had enough teachers.... The bishop promised them that he'd find six nuns for the school. I was one of the first teachers in the Federal School.

N/N: Did you teach religion?

AS: Not only religion. I taught everything. One of the things was business administration. That was my major in my master's of education.

N/N: Have you been in Fort Smith since 1957?

AS: No. After I was here for six years, they called me back to Fort McMurray as principal. I came back in 1970.

N/N: When you came back to Fort Smith, were you a teacher again?

AS: No, then I was the Mackenzie Diocese's director of religious education.

N/N: What did that job involve?

AS: They had these religious programs all over, and people weren't trained or helped.... I travelled to the communities to help the teachers, the catechists we called them then, for religion programs. I prepared children for their confirmation and helped them a lot with first communion preparation.

N/N: What was it like travelling around the North?

AS: By the time I came back here, the only way you travelled was by plane. When I first came here, there was even no highway to Hay River from Fort Smith. You went to Fort Fitzgerald, that was about it. You travelled in those small planes. I remember having to dress up so warm I had a hard time to sit down in the seats.

I remember coming from Simpson and one propeller stopped going. That scared the daylights out of me. So there were times when it was a little scary.

N/N: Do you feel you made a difference with your nine years' involvement with the Status of Women Council?

AS: I think so.

I also opened the first shelter here in Fort Smith for families. So that was definitely something very important to me. I definitely wanted to have a better life for women. And then in the church, of course, you always hear that it's male dominated all the time. So you definitely want women to have equal rights. The Status of Women was also very involved in dealing with abuse.

N/N: You're the only sister now left in Fort Smith?

AS: Yes. There were 30 when I came here. And there were 109 in the diocese. There were only Grey Nuns then and a few Sisters of St. Joseph in Yellowknife. There were 109 Grey Nuns, and now we are four. Three in Yellowknife and myself here.

N/N: Why did you stay when everybody else moved on?

AS: Well, first of all it was the shelter, really, because I was involved in that.... I keep in touch and I still get involved in whatever they ask me to do.

N/N: What did you become involved in after that?

AS: Well, I was still involved in quite a few things. There was an elderly lady here bugging me to write her memoirs. I never considered myself an author. It wasn't anything I really wanted to do, but then Bishop Piche also wanted me to write his. So I felt it was better to do those kinds of things in the North closer to the people, because I definitely wanted to get in touch with the people who knew him. And then it was just one thing after another.

N/N: Was your most recent book about your family history your last book?

AS: I feel I need a break, and also my files and a whole bunch of things have just been piling up one after the other. So I want to clear all that up. I don't say I won't sooner or later write again.

N/N: What are you involved in now?

AS: I'm highly involved in the Society for the Disabled. It's certainly something that takes a lot of my time and I find very important, the more we can do there. I have a lot of people calling and coming for all kinds of help from writing letters to reading letters to helping them solve a personal problem. I get a lot of phone calls and there are a lot of things I keep on doing. I'm involved in the parish, too.

N/N: How has the role of the church in the NWT changed?

AS: I think it is something very special to know the old church. The old traditional words, for instance, in the church were Latin and all of a sudden they changed that. But our community changed a lot. I guess the people in the world noticed it more in the church. So I was caught in change in the church, in ordinary life and my everyday living. I never worked inside of the church community like most of the sisters did in the North. You went across the hall to teach or across to the other wing for hospital work, or something like that. My work was all involved outside of the church community. I was very involved with the people and got to know a lot of people besides. The way of teaching also changed a great deal. I remember when I changed my nun's uniform and went into school the first day, the kids couldn't talk for two or three days because it looked like I was born with that long dress.

N/N: Describe your personality.

AS: When I want to do something, I do it. I don't like things to drag. I certainly get along well with people and students, and that helps a lot. I've got a lot of great support and encouragement. I guess part of me is being determined. When I don't want to do something, I'm not going to do it. When I see something worthwhile, I really put everything into it.... I certainly like to work with people and spent a lot of time with the young whenever I can and get along well with them. Sometimes I'd need 48 hours in a day. But to me it's natural.