Testimonials
https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2021/07/28/stories-from-survivors-of-canadas-indigenous-residential-schools
JOHN JONES: I could understand my traditional language, but I couldn't speak it at the time. And one of the things that we had to do was watch the supervisor strap our friends with a strap that was made out of a fire hose. And it would not just be on the hands, so we had to watch him. And to this day, I can't speak our traditional language, and I think it's because of watching my friends getting strapped for speaking their language.
JOHN JONES: One of the things I asked for was for a representative from the government or the church to come to our place of ceremony where our life is, our traditional teachings, and made an apology. I think I would be able to accept that a bit more. That's how I was taught traditionally on how to make things right so that we can move on in life.
JOHN JONES: I learned as an adult that if my parents didn't send us that they would be possibly looking at a jail sentence.
JOHN JONES: Boys sometimes peed their bed, and the counselor would make us form two lines facing each other with our belt in our hands. And as each of the person that was being punished for peeing the bed [passed], we would have to whip them with our belt as they passed to the lines. I chose not to with my friends, and as a result, I had to go through that line and get whipped myself. And each time their punishment took place, I chose not to whip them, but to get punished with them.