Indian School Road

by Chris Benjamin

"...a welcome and essential addition to the Canadian historical canon."
--Joel W. Vaughan, Broken Pencil

"It’s a powerful, hard-hitting book that will bring the whole sordid history of the schools to new audiences. Hailed by Quill & Quire as one of the season’s most-anticipated Canadian non-fiction titles, the book lives up to that advance billing."
--Paul Bennett, Chronicle Herald

"...a comprehensive, balanced and well-researched book on how a Canada-wide attempt to assimilate first nation children through brute force played out in one residential school. It's also a page turner. Benjamin knows how to make the story come to life."
--Robert Devet, Halifax Media Co-op

In Indian School Road, journalist Chris Benjamin tackles the controversial and tragic history of the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School, its predecessors, and its lasting effects, giving voice to multiple perspectives for the first time.

Benjamin integrates research, interviews, and testimonies to guide readers through the varied experiences of students, principals, and teachers over the school’s nearly forty years of operation (1930–1967) and beyond.

Exposing the raw wounds of Truth and Reconciliation as well as the struggle for an inclusive Mi’kmaw education system, Indian School Road is a comprehensive and compassionate narrative history of the school that uneducated hundreds of Aboriginal children.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Indigenous, Canada, Indigenous History

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2014

About the author

Chris Benjamin is a fiction and features writer.

His latest book is The Art of Forgiveness, from Galleon Books, a collection of linked short stories about three boys growing up (rough) in the suburbs. His previous, nonfiction, books include Chasing Paradise and Indian School Road: Legacies of the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School, which won the Dave Greber Social Justice Book Award. His short story collection, Boy With A Problem, was a finalist for the Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction.

He is also the author of Eco-Innovators: Sustainability in Atlantic Canada (winner of the 2012 APMA Best Atlantic-Published Book Award & finalist for the 2012 Evelyn Richardson nonfiction prize) and the critically-acclaimed novel, Drive-by Saviours (longlisted for 2011 ReLit Award & Canada Reads 2011; winner of the Percy Prize).

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

"...a gut-wrenching and much-needed historical work...I'd like to see Indian School Road as mandatory reading in all Canadian high schools and universities." --Marjorie Simmins, The Antigonish Review

"I have just finished reading Indian School Road and am delighted and humbled. It's a searing and detailed indictment of Canada's slow-motion genocide of First Nations. A bitter pill, but necessary." --Gary Geddes, Author of Drink the Bitter Root

"Mi’kmaq readers may gain insight into why they and their parents or grandparents were thrown into such a nightmare. Non-Mi’kmaq readers will stare straight at an attempted cultural genocide carried out (or tacitly supported by) our parents and grandparents...reading this book will at least get us past the comfortable lies."
--Jon Tattrie, Atlantic Books Today
(Read the review at http://atlanticbookstoday.ca/benjamin...)

"...a welcome and essential addition to the Canadian historical canon."
--Joel W. Vaughan, Broken Pencil
(Read the Broken Pencil review at http://www.brokenpencil.com/news/book...)

"It’s a powerful, hard-hitting book that will bring the whole sordid history of the schools to new audiences. Hailed by Quill & Quire as one of the season’s most-anticipated Canadian non-fiction titles, the book lives up to that advance billing."
--Paul Bennett, Chronicle Herald
(Read the CH Review at http://thechronicleherald.ca/books/12...)

"...a comprehensive, balanced and well-researched book on how a Canada-wide attempt to assimilate first nation children through brute force played out in one residential school. It's also a page turner. Benjamin knows how to make the story come to life."
--Robert Devet, Halifax Media Co-op
(Read the Media Co-op's review at http://halifax.mediacoop.ca/story/und...)

Read a Q&A about the book in The Coast at http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/one-pe....

Here's Chris Benjamin on Global News talking about Indian School Road:

Your browser does not support frames. Click here to view the frameless video..

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Indian School Road is a deeply affective read, telling as does the devastating story of the Shubenacadie Residential School, a dark and ugly part of my province’s history - of my history. The telling is powerful, balanced and thoughtful. I am grateful to have been guided through this story by this book and this author

[Adriaauld · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important anti-colonial history.

[Stephen Law · Rating 4 out of 5]

A crucial book to read to understand the who, the how and the what of Residential Schools. Chris provides a glaring illustration of the attempted genocide against Aboriginal people's which took place in Canada; endorsed, sanctioned and undertaken by the Canadian government, Indian Affairs, the media, the church and Canadian society. It is a stark depiction of what took place in the Shubenacadie school - located not far down the road. If anyone is looking to understand our responsibility as settlers and the impact of racism and abuse, this is a good place to start. Chris highlights the important role of survivors and juxtaposes what officials said was happening with testimony of those who were abused. Communities are still waiting for authentic reparations.

[Jessica Thurlow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much appreciate how much time and careful effort Chris Benjamin has put in to this book. I went in to the book knowing very little about residential schools, ashamedly, and now am inspired to pursue more books on the topic - I will be mining the further reading suggestions at the back of the book!

[Margaret Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a difficult read, but an important one. So much history has been lost.

[Kelly Costello · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a settler Canadian living in Mi'kma'ki, this is an important part of MY history to acknowledge as well. The story of Shubenacadie Residential School is not widely shared. It is up to us to seek it out and acknowledge it.

There is so much in this book that is difficult to read, but honestly, important to understand.

Thank you, Mr. Benjamin.

[Alison DeLory · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's no secret that Canada's residential schools were largely unhappy places designed to take the Indian out of the student. The fact that First Nations students who lived after the experience are called "survivors" is an appropriate use of the word—some children were malnourished, emotionally and physically abused, worked and/or neglected to their deaths. Yet knowing intellectually and abstractly that residential schools were racist and oppressive places, and reading a book about one such school right here in my home province of Nova Scotia that includes the names of organizations and people I have heard of or know, was for me a profoundly different, necessary and important experience.

Chris Benjamin's book Indian School Road, Legacies of the Shubenacadie Residential School (Nimbus Publishing 2014) is an expertly researched and constructed book. It opens with a thorough history of the residential school system in Canada through which government-supported, church-run schools housed and taught First Nations children, substandardly and often against their and their families' wills.

It then focuses on the construction of one particular school, the Shubenacadie Residential School, which was poorly built and inadequately funded from its opening in 1930 in central Nova Scotia, and traces experiences there until its closure in 1967. The story is unsurprisingly tragic, but the closing chapters provide readers with a glimmer of hope given more recent efforts by some people to understand, heal, apologize, reconcile, and do things better so First Nations can maintain and celebrate their culture.

Benjamin clearly spent thousands of hours digging for information, reading, interviewing, challenging, considering and crafting this book—and it paid off. His work as a journalist, nonfiction and creative writer combine to create a book that is in equal measures thorough, evidenced and emotional. Records were destroyed, government officials and many of the school's administrators, teachers and students are now dead, unreachable, or uninterested in talking, and the monumental task of piecing this narrative together was clearly daunting. Yet Benjamin does so with thoroughness and sensitivity.

My favourite story in the book comes via Rita Joe, a Shubenacadie survivor and renowned Mik'maq poet. Her time at the school is described as challenging though not entirely terrible. (Survivor experiences are greatly varied as are the memories of those who worked there.) Joe had relationships with some of the Sisters of Charity (the Catholic order that supplied the teachers) that she maintained after leaving Shubenacadie. Joe accepted an invitation to return to the school as a guest speaker. She came back in fancy clothes and bright lipstick, an act of defiance contrasting the drab and ill-fitting uniforms the students had to wear, and spoke in Mi'kmaw which was forbidden amongst students and indecipherable to the teachers. She told them in words only they would understand to return to their reserves and rediscover themselves after they left the school, that they would be safer there in their own communities surrounded by family.

I was affected by Rita Joe's story. Although she died in 2007, I've been learning that Joe overcame childhood poverty and prejudice to write about her people's history and culture, and counter negative stereotyping. She had remarkable resilience and capacity to heal and forgive.

Shubenacadie Residential School was operational a mere half-century ago. It rightfully shames us that in our not-so-distant past this existed. But to pretend it didn't, to turn away from this story because it is uncomfortable to read, is to deny the pain and lose an opportunity to learn from it so that we can be better, together. The best forms of investigative journalism shine a light into the darkest corners, and in Indian School Road Benjamin illuminates a bleak and misdirected attempt, even if originally well-intentioned, that was nothing short of a cultural genocide.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This carefully-researched history of one residential school in Nova Scotia provides a window on the abuse and cultural annihilation that people of European descent visited on indigenous people in North America. Chris Benjamin has written an engrossing and distressing story of a Dickensian system that worked and punished children without providing much at all in the way of education, in the name of "assimilation." This particular school closed in 1967, but the last such school in Canada did not close until 1996. I appreciated the last chapters, which discussed efforts to change the educational system for indigenous Canadians, the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and continuing injustices and challenges. Americans and Canadians alike--especially those of us of European descent--need to know the shameful history of the residential schools and their sad and very present legacy.

[Jim Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars just for the exhaustive research that Mr. Benjamin must have had to do to produce this excellent book. A real eye-opener for those of us not familiar with the subject of the Residential Schools. Full review is here: http://miramichireader.ca/2015/12/two...

[Tracy Mackenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An essential read for every Canadian.

[Gemington · Rating 4 out of 5]

TW: genocide, forced imprisonment, death, sexual violence, abuse, sexual and physical abuse of children, anti-Indigenous racism

At first glance I was concerned that a white settler was telling the story of Shubenacadie Residential school, and was doing this without directly interviewing survivors. However, I thought Benjamin’s up front description of this was thoughtful and gave me pause. This is not a Mi’kmaq only story. As Daniel Paul suggests in the foreword, we settlers did this. It is our legacy and we are the ones who need to grapple with it. Benjamin did not need to induce additional suffering. There was already plenty that could be shared. This book is for white people. We are the ones who need to read this and do the work.

This book provides a useful historical overview that makes use of existing secondary source material, archives, unpublished dissertations and theses, and a very small number of personal interviews to describe and contextual use the Shubenacadie residential school, an institution for Indigenous children that was underfunded and grimly managed by the Catholic Church, Sisters of Charity, and the Indian Affairs department. It is a story of deprivation, abuse and suffering. Residential schools were juvenile detention centres far more than schools. Education was not prioritized. Work was.

The context around its creation, life, and closure were very useful. The writer is careful and practices cultural humility as he approaches his subject. The focus on Mi’kmaq education and the TRC was hopeful while still recognizing that these issues are contemporary and not historical. Colonialism is not something that happened, it is something that is happening. So too is the genocide of Indigenous peoples.

This book came out shortly after the TRC was established and is now almost a decade old. Much of the contemporary prices at the end have new stories to tell. And yet, there is much continuity and uncertainty. Have settlers engaged in the reconciliation work? No. Have they been given many opportunities

[Ronald Kelland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not going to say much about this book. Sure, I can nitpick it a bit and point out how I wish that it indicated its sources better with either endnotes or the occasional footnote, but I understand that those things that the academic in me would appreciate are often a turn-off for a general audience. This book should be read by a wide audience and across the country. Don't let the Nova Scotia setting fool you, the story of the Shubanecadie Residential School is the story of all residential schools. What Canada put Indigenous children through in those schools is shameful and the more Canadians that become aware of our residential school legacy the better, because maybe we won't do it again and maybe it will foster a better sense of empathy in us. Considering the horrific nature of the subject matter, Chris Benjamin has written a very accessible book. I fear that sometimes the true horror of what happened becomes hard to believe, even though the evidence is right there on the pages is front of us. As a historian who already believes in the importance of acknowledging our residential school legacy (amongst other atrocities perpetuated upon Indigenous people) Indian School Road held little surprises for me, but that does not take away from the shock of it all. If this book makes even a small handful of other Canadians aware of residential schools it will have made a laudable contribution.

[Wendell Hennan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quit at page 135, for two reasons. In my opinion when historians do not reconstruct in sequential order from beginning to end they fail to present a clear cut picture of how things evolved, beginning to end. Secondly and not surprisingly, it was just too depressing. Once again the Catholic Church fails miserably in treating the residents as Jesus would have, and it is difficult to fathom why the Shubenacadie community, many of whom would have had dealings with and perhaps worked at the school could have stood by silently while this abuse and unacceptable conditions continued year after year. I guess the reason is that no one truly wanted to have Indians living near them which speaks so sadly for Canada. I would like to think that the Maritime provinces would not accept this kind of treatment today, however, it has taken decades for the Mi'kmaw to have their side of the story become accepted as truth. Well researched and documented by Chris Benjamin.

[Phoenix Milo MacKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is written by a white man, and is very much written for white people. But in this case, I'd say this is beneficial. The author is writing with the intention of educating himself and others on their responsibilities and the ways they benefited from colonialism, while also helping raise the stories of survivors. I highly recommend this book, it's as accurate as it could be for the lack of available records on the "school" in question, and does a fantastic job of describing how the effects are felt even today.

[Lucy]

The Indian residential school in Shubenacadie Nova Scotia was open from 1930 to 1967. This book describes the school’s origins, some of the people who ran it, and the experiences of some of the students. The Canadian government and the Catholic church seemed to believe they were doing the right thing in trying to take the Indian-ness out of Indian children. The book wraps up on a more positive note about the current state of Mi’kmaw education.

[Tashi Yangtso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well researched, well-narrated and humanly truthful account of Shubenacadie Residential School.
I would recommend this to anyone who is invested in genuinely expanding one's understanding of legacies of colonialism, inter-generational trauma, protective factors, childhood trauma/abuse and the failure of systems in power to see different ways of being.

[Irisheyescm49 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not Gods Intention

Very enlightening & horrifying at the same time! A read for everyone not only in the Indian Schools but for anyone who had a Catholic education and was physically and mentally abused by the Catholic Education System! So many atrocities by both the priests & the "good sisters". Thank God those methods of control have been abolished!

[Sara Stone Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was definitely a hard read because of the material, but it’s so important to have the truth written about these horrible events, so people can educate themselves. This was very well written, and I highly recommend it if you are looking for source material for educational purposes.

[Bianca Marvel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! It made me weep.

[Stefanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ever since I learned about residential schools, I’ve been fascinated. This was very informative and well-researched.

[Kathleen McRae · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book could be filed under a number of categories including Horror Story. The inhumanity in this book perpetrated by government and catholic organizations is beyond belief.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important book, well written.

[Mercy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meticulously researched, a one-of-a-kind telling of the history of the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School. Should be a "must read" for every Nova Scotian.