Title: Wawahte: Subject: Canadian Indian Residential Schools
Author: Robert P. Wells
Publisher: Friesen
ISBN: 978-1466917194
Pages: 206
Genre: Native American History/Sociology/History/Americas
Reviewed by: Tony Espinoza
Pacific Book Review
As painful as it may be at times, we as a people cannot be afraid to face the dark parts of our past. Whether it is a personal struggle or a more national or even global problem that haunts us, we must be willing to acknowledge the past in order to move on to the present and speak out against injustice. As Robert Kennedy once said, “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
In author Robert P. Wells’ Wawahte: Subject: Canadian Indian Residential Schools, the author utilizes eye-witness accounts, interviews and more to bring to light the history and injustices of the Canadian Indian Residential School System. The book details and showcases the shocking and grim reality of the schools themselves, and the dark purpose of the schools as a whole to remove thousands of Indigenous children from their villages and homes to teach them the ways of Christianity and erase the culture and practices of their own people from their minds.
This was a very educational, painful yet well-written book. The author does an amazing job of bringing the voices of not only the participants who shared their life stories and experiences within the Canadian Indian Residential School System, but all those who came before and after who experienced it as well. From the happy home life, the participants shared with readers to the more tragic and painful experience of being ripped away from their loved ones and enduring the teachings of these schools, the knowledge and history imparted here are both shockingly emotional and highly educational.
Wawahte is the perfect read for those who enjoy history, especially those who have a fascination with learning about other cultures, the history of the entire Americas and not just the United States, and those who seek to understand the atrocities and mistakes of the past so that a brighter future can be built. As someone who has a deep appreciation for history and other cultures, it was both a shock and enlightening to learn about this Canadian history and see the struggle of the Indigenous People through the eyes of those who had lived through it.
A well-written, evenly-paced and engaging read, author Robert P. Wells’ Wawahte: Subject: Canadian Indian Residential Schools is a must-read both for its educational purposes and its emotional beats as well. Both intellectually and emotionally written, the author does an incredible job of showcasing both the personal stories of each participant and what they endured as they went to one of these schools but delved into the history and culture of the Indigenous people
