Old Sun Annex

The Annex at Old Sun Community College. This Area of the School Presently Contains Various Administrative Offices. It Originally Served as the Priest’s Primary Residence During the Time that Old Sun Functioned as an Indian Residential School.

“It has been strongly impressed upon myself, as head of the Department, that Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men.” – Sir John A. MacDonald, 1879

The Minister’s Quarter’s

Cropped photo of the exterior, showing a car parked in front of the annex at Old Sun. 1930s. NA-2966-4. Courtesy of the Glenbow Archives.

The annex at Old Sun Community College is currently used as a meeting space for staff. The main floor has a private office, an office with board room, and a small kitchen area. Upstairs, there are three offices, a bathroom, and an additional room. The annex’s half basement is used for storage.

When Old Sun operated as a residential school, the annex served as accommodation for the minister, who was also principal of the school, and his family. The kitchen and boardroom functioned as a private kitchen and formal dining area where the minister could entertain guests. The rooms upstairs served as bedrooms. Students at the school were not generally allowed access to the annex, except when brought there specifically by the minister.

For the creation of this archive, many of the survivors returned to Old Sun to share their memories, and were interviewed in the boardroom which used to be the dining room for these quarters. For many survivors, it takes great strength and resilience to return to the school and revisit their memories.

Notes:
The content of this page is pending approval by Old Sun Community College.

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This gallery contains modern day and archival images of the annex of Old Sun. If you have photos of the annex that you would like to submit to this archive, please contact us at irsdocumentationproject@gmail.com.

Leica BLK scanning under the stairs to the basement of the annex during digital documentation of Old Sun. August 2020. Photo source: Madisen Hvidberg.

Old Sun School, annex to the right with separate entrance visible. [193-?]. P75-103-S7-188 from the General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada.

Boardroom office of the Siksika Studies department at Old Sun Community College, formerly the dining room of the minister's quarters. Photo from digital capture of Old Sun, August 2020.

Upstairs office in the annex of Old Sun, formerly a bedroom for the minister's quarters. Photo from digital capture of Old Sun, August 2020.

Entrance to the annex of Old Sun. Photo from digital capture of Old Sun, August 2020.

Old Sun School, this brick building was opened in 1929. 1930s. NA-2966-4. Courtesy of the Glenbow Archives.

Rev. Robert Crocker and family, who would have been living in the annex. 1955. NA-4817-50. Courtesy of Glenbow Archives .

Old Sun School, annex to the right.[193-?] P7538-1022 from the General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada

Rev. Cole and Frazer with hens. Cole would have been living in the annex (on the left side of Old Sun) and Mr. Fraser in the maintenance house. June 1950. P7538-998 from the General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada.

Mandel Old Woman- It’s Making Me Hurt

And one thing I never knew, I never knew… I never noticed this one thing that happened to me. It was just that when we shower, and when we shower the, well his name is, umm, Mr. Bolton. I still know, I still know Mr. Bolton, umm I don’t know, to this day I still I don’t I don’t want, I still have regrets against him. I don’t know. it’s hard to forgive. I don’t know. I just… I don’t know, I just pray about it. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know if he’s still alive. And anyway ,what’s an awful thing like, umm like I just found out for myself by looking at it… like that’s, that’s, I think kind of sexual, sexual abuse. Him standing there just looking at us. You know showering and touching us and, you know, our ears and… you know. We have to use a, like steel, like those hard steel brushes to scrub our, our umm like our elbows and our knees.. and you know we can’t get any cleaner than that. You know, scrubbing and there’s just red marks on our elbows, knees, and you know… that’s very awful. You know its, it’s these things, there’s lot of things that I could, you know, could keep talking, and talking. You know, the things that like.

And at nights you get hungry but what are you supposed to eat? We don’t get nothing. We’re in bed about by 4, 5 o’clock in the evening. We don’t even have playing time outside. You know just maybe half an hour… and there, he’s still staying there just watching over us over the window. And I don’t know what, I don’t know what’s going, become of that. I mean what I’m saying… Every move you know, he’s right there, and you know. We can’t do nothing. And at the same time, I never knew, he gives us um I think olive, that olive… I think it’s that olive oil or whatever. I never knew. Cod liver I should say cod liver oil. And I never knew, I never, never, that I don’t know what that does to us. I never did like that. And like umm yeah, so I didn’t like that. The soda to brush our teeth. We have, to umm… and we can’t have any rips on our clothes or anything like our runners, or like our, like our clothes they are ripped, we get punished for that.

And yeah, there’s so many things I don’t know like, umm… Just give me a minute… umm that’s kind of bringing bad memories. It’s making me hurt. Just a minute.

[long pause, speaker very emotional]

Yeah, it’s just so awful, it’s making me hurt and angry, coming back to it. I really want to finish this interview. You know I was just thinking about it.

Just give me a minute.

[long pause, speaker very emotional]

I say that wasn’t our home I mean, that was our home. We never got to see our parents.

I think I’ll just end off here.

Okay.

-Mandel Old Woman

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