Survivors' stories

“I wanted to go home,” Marlene Keeses recalls. At the tender age of seven she was enrolled in Muscowequan Indian Residential School. Prior to this point, the family of eleven lived in a two-bedroom home where love, sharing and kindness were valued. The white agent at the door disrupted these traditions. Through force and intimidation Indigenous children were taken to approved drop-offs. The children were dehumanized. They crammed the children into military style trucks. This journey foreshadows the pain and suffering inherent in residential schools where physical, sexual and emotional abuse was common. Marlene lives with the wounds from these experiences. She is a survivor who is a living testament to determination.