Gary Williams- That’s What Really Hurt Me
When it came dinnertime they hauled us to the bottom basement, that’s where the dinner quarters are. They served us “dinner,” I wouldn’t call it dinner right now. Something we didn’t like, they told you that “you gotta like it.” So what was there- because we’re so hungry even though we had a snack, we’re still hungry– we eat this stuff, I can’t remember what I ate. I know a lot of the diet here, what was here was that, Prem they call it. Prem or now they call Spam, and some potatoes and that was it.
We had our dinner, then it was almost time to bedtime. There was going to be one big meeting after breakfast at 10 o’clock or whatever. It was between the girls’ side, and the boys’ side getting all in one, under one room, still sort of segregated. Go on the same rules. Rules thing again. You know, “no talking to the girls.” Rules with, with girls, I guess. And that was kind of that how we settled what not to do. After that, it was like, I think on a Monday, we were told to “go into these classrooms.”
Even then I didn’t get to see my brother all that time. Maybe they brought him in later or different time or whatever… but it really hurts me to this day that, that four, four months passed, and I didn’t see him. Even though we were in the same dorm, not same dorm, but the same side of the building. I still didn’t see him four months, and that’s what really hurt me.
-Gary Williams
Notes:
Oral interview with Gary Williams. Conducted by Peter Dawson at Poundmaker’s Lodge, St Albert, May 4, 2022. Transcribed by Erica Van Vugt and Madisen Hvidberg. University of Calgary, Jan 23, 2024.
Image: AB Archives, PR19910383412. Edmonton Indian Residential School, St. Albert, Title: [no names or description provided]. ND.
