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    Aggie and Mudgy: The Journey of Two Kaska Dena Children
    Aggie and Mudgy: The Journey of Two Kaska Dena Children
    Aggie and Mudgy: The Journey of Two Kaska Dena Children
    Ebook110 pages1 hour

    Aggie and Mudgy: The Journey of Two Kaska Dena Children

    By Wendy Proverbs

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    About this ebook

    Based on the true story of the author’s biological mother and aunt, this middle-grade novel traces the long and frightening journey of two Kaska Dena sisters as they are taken from their home to attend residential school.

    When Maddy discovers an old photograph of two little girls in her grandmother’s belongings, she wants to know who they are. Nan reluctantly agrees to tell her the story, though she is unsure if Maddy is ready to hear it. The girls in the photo, Aggie and Mudgy, are two Kaska Dena sisters who lived many years ago in a remote village on the BC–Yukon border. Like countless Indigenous children, they were taken from their families at a young age to attend residential school, where they endured years of isolation and abuse.

    As Nan tells the story, Maddy asks many questions about Aggie and Mudgy’s 1,600-kilometre journey by riverboat, mail truck, paddlewheeler, steamship, and train, from their home to Lejac Residential School in central BC. Nan patiently explains historical facts and geographical places of the story, helping Maddy understand Aggie and Mudgy’s transitional world. Unlike many books on this subject, this story focuses on the journey toresidential school rather than the experience of attending the school itself. It offers a glimpse into the act of being physically uprooted and transported far away from loved ones. Aggie and Mudgy captures the breakdown of family by the forces of colonialism, but also celebrates the survival and perseverance of the descendants of residential school survivors to reestablish the bonds of family.

    Winner, 2022 City of Victoria Children's Book Prize
    Winner, 2022 Jeanne Clarke Regional History Award
    Shortlisted, 2022/23 First Nations Communities READ Award
    Nominated, 2022 Rocky Mountain Book Award

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHeritage House
    Release dateNov 17, 2021
    ISBN9781772033762
    Aggie and Mudgy: The Journey of Two Kaska Dena Children
    Author

    Wendy Proverbs

    Wendy Proverbs is an emerging Indigenous author of Kaska Dena descent. She holds a BA and MA in anthropology from the University of Victoria. Like thousands of Indigenous people across Canada, as an infant she was caught in the sweeping scoop of Indigenous children taken from their birth families and was only reunited with biological family members as a young adult. She has acted as a community liaison with Indigenous communities and strives to help younger generations, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, learn more about their past.

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      Book preview

      Aggie and Mudgy - Wendy Proverbs

      Praise for Aggie & Mudgy

      "In Aggie & Mudgy, Wendy Proverbs skillfully weaves a story that invites young readers to engage in a learning experience articulated within a structure reflective of traditional storytelling. Proverbs’s story not only provides insight into the reality of the removal of children to residential schools, but also gives insights and examples of Kaska Dena culture and traditions. These characters will stay with young readers and inspire them to embark on further learning."

      MICHELLE GOOD award-winning author of Five Little Indians

      This is a beautiful book. This story captures the warmth of a family, then the heartbreak of a family, and finally comes full circle to the love in a family. The new sights and experiences on their journey keep one interested. The ending made me cry in a good way. I highly recommend this book.

      BEV SELLARS author of They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential School

      "An important recounting of the Kaska Dena experience where children were removed from their families and taken impossibly great distances to residential schools. Aggie & Mudgy highlights how imperative it was for even the very young, such as these two Kaska Dena girls, to become their own heroes. An example of the enduring legacy of intergenerational memory and of honouring and keeping the stories of these children alive."

      CHRISTY JORDAN-FENTON co-author of Fatty Legs: A True Story

      To all the children finding their way home.

      Author’s Note

      THIS IS a story of two young Kaska Dena girls’ journey from their homeland on the BC–Yukon border, to the steps of Lejac Residential School, in central BC, in the 1920s. It is based on my aunt’s memoir depicting the journey she took with my birth mother. The story unfolds in contemporary times told by a fictionalized grandmother, Nan, to her eight-year-old granddaughter, Maddy.

      In keeping with the oral tradition of her ancestors, Nan teaches her granddaughter about her past by way of story. It slowly unfolds over several days as Nan and Maddy go about their daily routines. This is my way of telling my personal history to a fictional granddaughter living in today’s world. As Maddy listens to Nan tell her about the girls’ journey, she learns how it changed their lives forever, and her young mind asks questions that any child might ask. For example, Maddy wonders why they had to change their Kaska names to anglicized names, providing Nan an opportunity to teach her granddaughter about this dark aspect of her ancestors’ past. The story offers a glimpse into the impacts of colonization at a level Maddy can begin to understand. It also provides a lovely example of how the sisters fashioned their anglicized names into ones that they could own and like. Renamed by the church as Agnes and Martha, the girls decided to call themselves Aggie and Mudgy.

      The story Nan tells Maddy is not, however, about what Aggie and Mudgy experience at residential school. It focuses instead on the expedition that takes them from their home in Daylu (Lower Post), near the BC–Yukon border, to Lejac Residential School on the shores of Fraser Lake in central BC. The girls, aged eight and six, travel approximately 1,600 kilometres by riverboat, truck, paddlewheeler, steamship, and train—an exceptionally long journey even by today’s standards, let alone for two young girls who had never been outside their remote village.

      A priest wearing a long black robe accompanies them, an unkind man who physically abuses them when they don’t do as they’re told. At one point, they try to escape but are unsuccessful. The story of the journey ends just as the huge residential school doors bang shut behind the girls.

      To my knowledge, the literature published about Indigenous children’s travels from their home communities to the schools is not extensive. My mother and aunt’s residential school experiences were like those of their peers—comprised of well-documented injustices, now widely acknowledged as a national shame.

      Exposed to daily Christian indoctrination, they were punished and deprived of their culture, language, and families. This has been recognized as a form of cultural genocide by former Supreme Court justice Beverley McLachlin. Thankfully, these heartbreaking stories are coming to light more and more often, educating people about the tragic consequences and intergenerational trauma that continues today.

      My story offers a slightly different way into learning about this past by detailing the exceptional journey of my aunt and birth mother during a time when travel was an arduous undertaking. It also offers a glimpse into the transitional period of post-European contact, when small towns emerged and grew as a result of booming resource development.

      MY AUNT’S memoir planted the seeds of this story long ago. Writing Aggie and Mudgy’s story has drawn me closer to my ancestral roots. Like thousands of other Indigenous children in Canada, I’m part of this story. I was an infant during the sweeping scoop of Indigenous children taken from their home communities and placed with non-Indigenous families.

      I was a young adult when I began to search for my birth family. My search led me to some siblings, but I was too late to meet Mudgy, my birth mother. She had passed away several years earlier. Had my mother and aunt lived out their lives in the small northern community where they were born, who knows where life might have led them and me?

      Weaving my story through this fictionalized narrative enables me to share my ancestors’ historic journey, thereby offering readers insight into what it might have been like for young children to travel so incredibly far from their homeland and loved ones so long ago. My goal is to help younger generations, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, learn more about our country’s past. By learning about where we came from, we can begin to see how these stories shape who we are today.

      CHAPTER ONE

      Rupert Lane

      A MATURE woman waits silently. Her dark hair is peppered with silver streaks and tied back in a ponytail. Her brown eyes twinkle with mischief. She eases herself onto a plush, dusty rose–coloured loveseat and delights in the comforting glow of the late afternoon sunshine.

      Off to the side of the room, near a large bay window, is a round wooden table with a nest of four chairs, each covered in pastel suede. In the centre of the table, a large turquoise tea towel covers an easel. Underneath, a canvas painting rests alone on the table.

      Inhaling deeply, the woman whispers to herself, "Remember, it is the process and not the final outcome

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