Summary
Survivor Belvie Brebber tells us about her five years at Kuper Island Residential School, a time filled with fear, cruelty and sexual violence. Belvie makes it out alive, but her younger brother Richard Thomas does not. She describes a terrible phone call that shattered her family forever, and why she never believed the school's story that her beloved brother died by suicide. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/kuper-island-transcripts-listen-1.6622551
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Oh boy. Canada. Canada. Well doesn't it derive from a Gagnet-Evoir? |
| 0:05.8 | It's village. |
| 0:07.6 | As indigenous people we are used to our stories getting a little twisted. |
| 0:11.4 | So listen up as we set the record straight. I'm |
| 0:14.1 | Gagnetio. Please join me as we hear from dozens of indigenous people. |
| 0:18.2 | Together we will decolonize our words and our minds on the |
| 0:21.9 | telling our twisted histories podcast. our words and our minds on the Telling Our Twisted Histories Podcast. |
| 0:24.7 | You can find episodes on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:31.8 | This is a CBC podcast. |
| 0:34.0 | Before we start, this is a podcast about Canada's Indian residential schools and it contains |
| 0:39.6 | descriptions of sexual violence, suicide, and abuse. |
| 0:43.0 | If you need support, you can find information about where to turn for help at |
| 0:47.0 | C.C. |
| 0:51.0 | dot C.A. slash Keeper Island. |
| 0:50.0 | When I first got there, sister calls us down to the end of the war, if she's |
| 0:58.8 | okay anybody that doesn't know how to swim, step up. |
| 1:04.0 | The year is 1958. |
| 1:06.0 | Belvie Thomas is 11 years old. |
| 1:09.0 | She's standing on the tall wooden wharf |
| 1:11.0 | in front of the Cooper Island Indian Residential School. |
| 1:14.1 | The ocean is dark, the none is fierce, and Belvie Cat swim. |
| 1:18.9 | So I stood, stepped up and she says, okay, all of you, you know, there's five or six of us. You'll either sink or swim, and that's it. |
... |
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