Write-up:

During this assignment, I watched a video from “Legacy of Hope Foundation” and wrote a script for my podcast. I highlighted and separated sections of events while I was watching the video. I constantly watched the video until I grasped a gist of Mary Battaja’s story. I had a difficulty when I was recording because I frequently made minor mistakes. I overcame this challenge by editing and recording simultaneously.

 

Introduction

Hello ladies and gentlemen, this is Harry Lee from Canada History Podcast, and you are listening to our podcast episode 1, “Unforgettable past.” Today, I will be talking about a story about Mary, who previously attended to the residential school during her youth.

What is Residential school?

Residential schools were government-funded religious schools that were built to assimilate indigenous culture. They systematically damaged and undermined indigenous culture by educating indigenous children in Christian ways. Mary Battaja was forced to go to residential school and was separated from her Tutchone group.

Background information about Tutchone

Tutchone are First Nation people that occupy the largest population among the Yukon Aboriginal people of First Nations heritage. According to Canadian Encyclopedia, Tutchone’s “homeland is the vast plateau dissected by the Alsek and Yukon River headwaters, flanked on the southwest by the Coastal and St Elias mountains and on the northeast by Selwyn range” (para. 2). This geographically shows that Tutchone mainly live in central Yukon.

1^st topic: About Mary Battaja

2^nd topic: Residential school

3^rd topic: Mary’s current situation and future

Let’s begin Mary’s story:

• Background: She went to Choutla residential school, which was in Carcross, Yukon, in 1954 to 1958 (She was 8 years old). Before attending to residential school, she was born and raised by her traditional indigenous parents. She lived 3 miles down the Spirit River, 3 miles from Mayo town with her family. Her family and community were very traditional. They hunted, fished, and trapped animals. Her community was in a small village where no one knew how to speak English. She loved going to school in Anglican church with her grade 1,2, and 3 students.

 

• Moving out: But her happy time did not last long. One day, her entire community had to move out of the town. They were only allowed to take limited requisites. When they arrived at a new town, Mayo town, Mary’s father made a deal with a trader to cut woods for two tents because her family had nowhere to go. Her family had to live in these tents for about 5 years before renting their actual house. The rental fee was $15 a month, while her father only earned $13 each Friday. Mary thought it was unfair because an old white man took away her father’s entire salary when they had to pay their monthly pay. She said her family had a tough time in Mayo town because none of her family members knew how to speak English.

 

• First day at residential school: After living in this town for couple years, Mary was forced to go to school. She says she still remembers the first day at residential school. The school gave students numbers. Mary was fifty, and that was how they identified students. She had to wear specific clothes or else she was punished. Food was limited, and only priests and nuns had sufficient food. Mary and her friends managed to steal food even though they knew it was not right because they were suffering from hunger. She said she did not have a good memory in residential school.

 

• Residential school: The education involved severe abuse. Students were punished physically even though they did a minor mistake. Mary said the students were also punished when they spoke their own language. She had no idea why they were punished for speaking First Nations language because it was their identity. Also, when students were writing letters to their family once a month, teachers threw their letters in a garbage can if they did not like what was written. Moreover, the students never received a letter if teachers did not like their parents’ letters. Mary did not get her brown dress because it was thrown away.

 

• Choir: The school had a lot of clubs. Mary and her friends were especially interested in choir. Mary and her friend joined choir because they love singing, but they were punished and kicked out of choir for not singing high enough. Mary was indignant because it was not right to physically abuse students for not hitting high notes.

 

• Pray: The students had total 9 prayers per day. They were forced to pray, and Mary said she did not know why and what she was praying for. She thought, “If the god is a good one, why is things done this way?”

 

• John: Besides these, Mary had even worse traumatic experience at the residential school. Before talking about this event, I am going to give details about Mary’s brother, John. After Mary’s aunt passed away while giving birth to John, Mary’s parents took him and raised him like their own child. Mary treated him like her real brother. One day, Mary could not find John at residential school. After begging several times to the supervisor, Mary finally got to see her brother at infirmary. This was the last time she saw her brother. John was sent to Edmonton and died there. Mary did not even know what he died of. This remained as an unforgettable memory to her.

 

• Discrimination: During Mary’s last year of residential school, the government finally allowed First Nations to attend to public schools. Mary said she had a hard time because there were a lot of racist against First Nations. After her mother’s death, she decided to drop out of the school because she though the school was worthless. Since she did not have anywhere to go, she started working as a dish washer.

 

• Husband: She met her husband, Lino, at a mining place. Lino came from Italy for gold mining, and Mary said he always has been a wonderful man to her. She is still married to her husband, which has been 46 years, and she said Lino was her main support. Lino understood Mary’s pain and cared her gently. Even today, Lino cheered Mary for this interview, and made nice supper to encourage her.

 

• Her future goal: Mary is currently a priest and a social worker. Many people asked her why she chose to be a priest even though she has horrible memories at residential school, and she said she wants to help people unlike the priests at residential schools. Mary said she tries not to live in the past because she believes her past is a blueprint of her pains to a brighter future. She is using her pain to help others and make better future.

 

Show outro:

Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel if you haven’t already where we break down this episode throughout the week. Get your tickets to our live show in Vancouver at our website www.canadahistorypodcast.ca before they sell out because we will be playing a jeopardy where you can win $3,000 during our next live show.

Calls to Action:

Thanks for listening to Canada History Podcast. Before we go, show some love for your favorite podcast by leaving us a review on iTune Podcasts. Then stay turned for next week where we will find “The truth about Mary’s parents.” See you at the next episode.

 

 

 

Works Cited:

“Battaja.” Legacy of Hope Foundation, 24 Nov. 2020, legacyofhope.ca/wherearethechildren/stories/battaja-2/.

McCellan, Catharine. “Tutchone.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 29 Jan. 2007, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/tutchone.

Marshall, Tabitha, and David Gallant. “Residential Schools in Canada.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 10 Oct. 2012, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residential-schools.