'My little residenital school suitcase'
https://archives.anglican.ca/link/article38407
- Author
- Sison, Marites N.
- Material Type
- Journal Article
- Journal
- Anglican Journal
- Date
- 2013 Summer
- 2013 July
- Author
- Sison, Marites N.
- Material Type
- Journal Article
- Journal
- Anglican Journal
- Date
- 2013 Summer
- 2013 July
- Volume
- 139
- Issue
- 6
- Page
- 1, 6
- Notes
- Marcel Petiquay attended two Roman Catholic residential schools in Quebec (Amos Indian Residential School and Pointe Bleue Residential School) for 12 years starting when he was six years old in 1958. "Petiquay arrived with a small brown suitcase that his mother, Marie, had lovingly packed for him". "His reflections on [former students'] stories and his own life led to 'Ma Petite Valise du Pensionnat' ('My Little Residential School Suitcase'), a poem about loss and redemption resulting from his 12-year voyage at residential schools". "On April 25 [2013], Petiquay offered a copy of 'Ma Petite Valise' as a gesture of healing and reconciliation at the Quebec national event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC). With him when he spoke was the Rev. Cynthia Patterson, a priest from the diocese of Quebec. Petiquay carried a suitcase on whose outer cover he literally written his poem. Patterson carried another suitcase, in which Petiquay's poem, as well as other gestures of reconciliation from the Anglican Church of Canada and the diocese of Quebec, would be presented to the TRC commissioners". "Patterson, who co-ordinates the Anglican church's suicide prevention program for the Council of the North, was so deeply moved by Petiquay's poem that she sought him out for a possible project on reconciliation". "Petiquay's story os one of 'courage and the spiritual journey to continue and to share his journey' said Patterson. 'I could see it in use around suicide prevention work. I could see it in almost any setting. I could see it in our own spiritual healing. There's the education and awareness [component] that we have the legal and moral obligation as church to do'." "And so it was that at the Grand Salon of Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Petiquay and Patterson presented the powerful story of 'Ma Petite Valise' and other offerings. Patterson, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, and Quebec Bishop Dennis Drainville presented copies of native language translations of former primate Michael Peers's 1993 apology to aboriginal people, a brochure about the church's suicide prevention program and, from the church's archives, a photograph of small native children carrying small suitcases that, like Petiquay's, their parents had packed for them when they went to residential schools".
- Subjects
- Petiquay, Marcel, 1952-
- Indigenous peoples - Canada - Residential schools
- Anglican Church of Canada - Residential schools
- Indian residential schools - Canada - Catholic Church
- Patterson, Cynthia, 1955-
- Suicide - Prevention
- Suicide - Religious aspects - Anglican Church of Canada
- Native peoples - Canada - Anglican Church of Canada
- Reconciliation - Religious aspects - Anglican Church of Canada
- Healing - Religious aspects - Anglican Church of Canada
- Anglican Church of Canada. Diocese of Quebec
- Canada. Truth and Reconciliation Commission