The Education of Augie Merasty: A Residential School Memoir

Publisher's description (University of Regina Press, 2015): The Education of Augie Merasty offers a courageous and intimate chronicle of life in a residential school.

Now a retired fisherman and trapper, Joseph A. (Augie) Merasty was one of an estimated 150,000 First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children who were taken from their families and sent to government-funded, church-run schools, where they were subjected to a policy of "aggressive assimiliation."

As Merasty recounts, these schools did more than attempt to mold children in the ways of white society. They were taught to be ashamed of their native heritage and, as he experienced, often suffered physical and sexual abuse.

Even as he looks back on this painful part of his childhood, Merasty’s generous and authentic voice shines through. Joseph A. Merasty is Cree.

Caution: Mature subject matter and descriptions of discrimination, sexual/physical violence, and substance abuse.

Resource format: Memoir

Age recommendation: Grades 9 - 12, University

Keywords: residential school, resilience, survivor, abuse, addictions, memoir, history

Year of publication: 2015

Publisher information: University of Regina Press