Out of the Depths: A personal account of a residential school experience and the effects of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's apology many years later

This year’s Donna M. Loring lecture will be delivered by Isabelle Knockwood, and is entitled “Out of the Depths: A personal account of a residential school experience and the effects of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's apology many years later.”  

Isabelle Knockwood, a revered tribal elder of the Mi'kmaq Nation, will deliver the Maine Women Writer’s Collection annual Donna M. Loring Lecture. From the late 1800s through well into the 20th century, First Nations children in Canada (like those in the U.S.) were forced or coerced into attending residential schools, whose purpose was to eradicate indigenous culture. (The mission of these schools was to "kill the Indian to save the man.") The myriad abuses perpetrated at these bleak institutions were only acknowledged in 2008, when Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued an official apology to the residential school survivors on behalf of Canada and all Canadians. Ms. Knockwood, who attended the Indian Residential School in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, from 1936 to 1947, and is author of Out of the Depths will take the audience on a guided tour through the experience of residential schooling.  The focus of her presentation will be on the question of how Stephen Harper’s apology affected the survivors of the Shubenacadie residential school.