Out of the Depths: A personal account of a residential school experience and the effects of Prime Minister Stephen Harper\u27s apology many years later

Isabelle Knockwood, a revered Tribal Elder of the Mi’kmaq Nation, delivered this lecture on October 12, 2010 as part of the Donna M. Loring Lecture series. From the late 1800s through well into the 20th century, First Nations children in Canada, like those in the U.S., were forced or coerced into attending residential schools whose purpose was to eradicate indigenous culture. The myriad abuses perpetrated at these bleak institutions were only acknowledged in 2008, when Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued an official apology to the residential school survivors on behalf of Canada and all Canadians. Knockwood, who attended the Indian Residential School in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia from 1936 to 1947, took the audience on a guided tour through the experience of residential schooling. Her presentation focused on the question of how Stephen Harper’s apology affected the survivors of the Shubenacadie residential school. Knockwood received her Bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she majored in anthropology. She is the author of Out of the Depths: The Experiences of Mi’kmaw Children at the Indian Residential School in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia (1992, Fernwood Publishing; extended edition 2001), which details her own experiences in Shubenacadie