Muses From The North

Vritee Marrott On a cold December 2nd evening, I was blessed with an extraordinary experience. I had the uncommon privilege of sitting down to a one-on-one interview with a survivor of Canada’s residential school system. This particular survivor is not just any person. He is also the chancellor of the University College of the North.…

The University College of the North (UCN) has continued to make every effort possible to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action through the education it provides. Over 75% of students at UCN are Indigenous. This current issue of Muses from the North (MFTN), the 11th in the series, has more to…

Jasyn Lucas Yellow Cedar Mask I carved this mask out of yellow cedar during my time at the Studio Art Program at Capilano College in North Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2003. The yellow cedar tree was salvaged by my art instructor and brought to the college. The extreme weather washed it ashore to the beaches…

Nateshia Constant This is the story of a child survivor of who attended Indian Day School (established in 1892 and closed on September 1, 1979), Shoal Lake and Red Earth (established in 1902 and closed on September 1, 1980), Saskatchewan. The interviewee wishes to be anonymous, but she felt it was important to share her…

Kelly Laybolt It has been universally accepted that the Canadian fur trade caused extreme environmental degradation as fur bearing animals were over-harvested to near extinction; however, there are many different opinions about the causation of this ecological damage. Traditionally, Indigenous people have been associated with the environmental wisdom worldview, and they are thought of as…

Taylor Flett The following poems were inspired by my search for healing and reconciliation. They are expressions of the frustrating feelings of a young Indigenous woman who has dealt with the after-effects of colonialism, Christianity, and intergenerational trauma. The product of my search did not come easy for any Indigenous peoples in North America, especially…

Nateshia Constant Notes from the interviewer:             Some of the content shared by Robert Lathlin may trigger emotionally negative feelings to the reader.  Robert Lathlin (Bob) is an intergenerational victim of the residential school system and a survivor of Indian Day School, Manitoba.  Bob has experienced trauma, and he would like to share his experience…

Alicia Stensgard (Disclaimer of the playwright: This play portrays traumatic experiences of residential school survivors. All the names, characters, places, events and incidents in this play are either the product of my research on residential schools in Canada or my imagination based on the stories I have heard about the residential schools.  or used in…

Madison Gurniak Indigenous groups were mainly traditionally matrilineal as women in the societies existed as sacred in numerous Indigenous communities. Women were honoured and respected from time immemoriable, and their divine power has been well understood and held up high since then. Several Indigenous stories and myths in the required readings of the course, Indigenous…

Nateshia Constant I feel as if we are still proclaimed as numbers Just like before, our names still translate into a number which resides in our treaty number The government is still counting First Nations as numbers Filing our life into its growing statistical list of nothing but growing numbers First Nations children in Residential…