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EMMA: LEARNING ABOUT THE HISTORY AND IMPACTS OF RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS


BY BEVERLY FIDDLER E


mma Lafortte was my grand- mother’s younger sister. We knew very little about Emma, except what our grandmother shared. She and her sister were sent to St. Joseph’s Residential


School in Fort William (Thunder Bay) in 1906 when they were five- and six-years old. Emma died when she was nine and was bur- ied somewhere close to the school. My grand- mother’s recollection was she was woken very early in the morning and brought to a fresh grave. She was told her sister had died and to kneel and pray. Over the years my grand- mother made inquiries to find where her sis- ter was buried but to no avail. She knew the residential school had been relocated from the Fort William First Nation to Port Ar- thur when the land was sold to the railroad. It was later destroyed in a fire and a memo- rial now stands where the school was once located. My grandmother believed the grave, along with other graves, was ploughed over by developers. We were told that Emma, like other children who lost their lives, became ill and there were no doctors or hospitals in the area. My grandmother had no idea her sister had taken ill or was admitted to hospital as it was the policy in these schools to separate siblings by age and gender. She also told us it was common for the older children, herself


20 ETFO VOICE | FALL 2021


The death certificate our family received to account for what happened to Emma, with the official recorded cause of death.


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