STORIES / Okara’shòn:’a
Catholic school
"You were forbidden to speak Mohawk in school. You want to get a good whack? Say something in Mohawk. The nuns and the priests were in on it. “Break them. If you break their language, you got them,” was the line that they told. "
Walking to school
We lived close to Kateri School because we were downtown. The Lafleur family had their first store on the front street. The MCK office is there now but that was where the Lafleur’s had their butcher shop and groceries so we weren’t that far from school.
A comforting feeling
Church was just something you did. It was part of your week, and we always felt good about it. I remember our family had our pew where we always sat.
Religion divided us
I started going to high school in Lachine in 1959. In those days Chateauguay practically didn’t exist. We all shopped in Lachine, went to school in Lachine. We hung out over there and knew all the places.
We used to take those fancy coach buses with the high seats because we didn’t have school buses from Kahnawake yet. We felt so high class.
Protestant and catholic
My mother went to catholic school, but she did not want the nuns to teach us, so she sent us to protestant school. Protestant school was like today's public school. My cousin and I were the same age and lived in the same neighborhood, so we walked to school together. She was going to the catholic school and I was attending the protestant one. One time, she crossed the street and told me that she could not walk with me because I was protestant.
Kanoronhkwáhtshera'
At the revival of the Mohawk language, people wanted to learn their language and their culture. The more they would learn, the more they would say, “Hey, there’s nothing wrong with who I am, there’s nothing wrong with me. There is nothing wrong with the way Shonkwaia’tíson’, or God, has made me. I am perfect just the way I am.”
Living that dream
I met Onkwehón:we who didn’t even speak English all the way from Manitoba, BC, and other Western provinces. Many came to me and said, “I got no education. I never went to school. But I worked in my community for many years. I know my culture, I know my traditions, I know my history, and I know the church.”
Black and blue
Ti-bert used to dream out loud in Mi'kmaq, which they called the devil’s language. And if you spoke in Mi'kmaq, or even in English, you got beaten. Every night Ti-bert would miss his grandmother and would dream about her. So of course, he spoke in his sleep in his language because his grandmother didn’t speak French or English.
Now it’s ours
They said it is Terra Nullius - uninhabited land. So now begins the idea of superiority and dominance over Indigenous people. That’s right in Genesis. Pick up a catholic bible and read genesis, what does it say after God created men? “So therefore, ye shall be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the world and have dominion over everything.”
Candy, soda and ice cream
We went to church in New York when we were kids. Every Sunday we used to go. After a while, our mother stopped going but she still used to make us go.
Brick house by the riverside
My father built that house in 1925. It was there 1925 to 1955. They took it away for the Seaway in 55’.
The Baptism Book
My mom baptized me, but when I got older, I re-learned my culture, my history and my language. So me and another friend of mine, we went to the church to go talk to the priest.