Gaʻs/The Train (English and Miʻgmaq Edition)

 

My Thoughts:

Written in English by a Miʻgmaq author and translated by a Miʻgmaq translator, this is a poignant story about the lasting trauma of the residential schools in Canada from the point of view of a little girl's Uncle, "Ntlamugsis." Because the Uncle is talking to his niece, Ashley, who is still a child, he does not go into the brutal reality of children taken by force from their families and beaten and sometimes killed in these residential schools, however, the trauma is being separated from family and culture is explained simply  enough that Ashley feels the injustice and pain of this experience.

In the end, I think this will help middle schoolers to research further and take a closer look at other first person accounts from survivors of the residential schools. Being in Hawaiʻi, this is a story of loss of a language which we also know is the loss of culture. We have a Hawaiian proverb that states, I ka ʻōlelo nō ke ola, i ka ʻōlelo nō ka make - in language there is life, in language there is death. The loss of our language in the generations before us means that as indigenous people, we are going to school to learn our grandparents' and great grandparents' mother tongue. It does not miss my attention that this is a story written in English and translated into Miʻgmaq versus the other way around.  We heed the warning from the proverb and from this book. If we do not pass on these stories, if we do not encourage our children to continue our culture through language, who will?

From the Publisher:

he dual-language edition, in English and Mi'gmaq, of the Silver Birch Express-nominated title, The Train.

Ashley meets her great-uncle by the old train tracks near their community in Nova Scotia. Ashley sees his sadness, and Uncle tells her of the day years ago when he and the other children from their community were told to board the train before being taken to residential school where their lives were changed forever. They weren't allowed to speak Mi'gmaq and were punished if they did. There was no one to give them love and hugs and comfort. Uncle also tells Ashley how happy she and her sister make him. They are what give him hope. Ashley promises to wait with her uncle by the train tracks, in remembrance of what was lost.