Summer is gone, fading quickly into fall and falling faster into winter. School has begun once again. Older students return to schools in the big “cities” of Inuvik, Yellowknife and Fort Smith NWT. There had been doubt that we would have a second teacher for the grades three, four and five kids. Without a second teacher, the kids in these junior grades would then have to attend school, probably in Inuvik. This means having to live in residential accommodation for 10 months, there is no family contact other than postal mail during this time. Letters can be sent but many of the older people in the communities cannot read or write, they still sign their name with an X.
In the twelfth hour kids show up from bush camp, we now have enough students to qualify for a teacher and one is found. Parents receive the family allowance cheques from the government for kids that attend school. If you weren’t a Treaty Indian it could be the only money you had to live on.
樂天KOBO
