A residential school survivor finds his way back to his language
and culture through his family's traditional stories. When
reflecting on forces that have shaped his life, Solomon Ratt says
his education was interrupted by his schooling. Torn from his
family at the age of six, Ratt was placed into the residential
school system-a harsh, institutional world, operated in a language
he could not yet understand, far from the love and comfort of home
and family. In ka-pi-isi-kiskisiyan / / The Way I Remember It ,
Ratt reflects on these memories and the life-long challenges he
endured through his telling of acimisowin -autobiographical
stories-and also traditional tales. Written over the course of
several decades, Ratt describes his life before, during, and after
residential school. In many ways, these stories reflect the
experience of thousands of other Indigenous children across Canada,
but Ratt's stories also stand apart in a significant way: he
managed to retain his mother language of Cree by returning home to
his parents each summer despite the destruction wrought by
colonialism. Ratt then shifts from the acimisowina (personal,
autobiographical stories) to acathohkiwina , (sacred stories) the
more formal and commonly recognized style of traditional Cree
literature, to illustrate how, in a world uninterrupted by
colonialism and its agenda of genocide, these traditional stories
would have formed the winter curriculum of a Cree child's
education. Presented in Cree Th-dialect Standard Roman Orthography,
syllabics, and English, Ratt's reminiscences of residential school
escapades almost always end with a close call and a smile. Even
when his memories are dark, Ratt's particularly Cree sense of
humour shines, making ka-pi-isi-kiskisiyan / / The Way I Remember
It an important and unique memoir that emphasizes and celebrates
Solomon Ratt's perseverance and life after residential school.
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