Summary Of My Little Residential School Staircase

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The poem “My Little Residential School Suitcase” reflects the pain and hardships that Petiquay had experienced at residential schools. The residential schools wanted indigenous children to forget about their culture and learn about European culture. He talks about how he, and fellow indigenous children were physically, emotionally, and sexually abused and were taught to forget about their culture and language. An example of this statement would be, “my mother carefully prepared my little suitcase / She took care to put in it everything I would need / My clothes, some toys I would never see again / I was six years old on this first trip / In my little suitcase, my mother had also put / all the love she had, without forgetting the love from my father” (2-8). Here, Petiquay is talking about what had happened before he …show more content…

As soon as he had reached the school, they immediately emptied out his suitcase and had gotten rid of all of his belongings, including the love from his parents, and the qualities they had taught him. Another quote, “When I returned home, my / little suitcase was heavy. What my / mother had put in it was gone; love / embraces, all those beautiful things had / disappeared. They had been replaced / by hatred, self-rejection, abuses of all / kinds (alcohol, drugs, sexual abuse) by / violence, anger and suicidal thoughts.” (15-21) talks about the horrible experiences he went through at the residential school. He had been physically, emotionally, and sexually abused by many people at the residential schools. The children there would get severely beat and needles were pierced into their tongues when they spoke their native language. When Petiquay returned, his suitcase, which is a metaphor for his feelings, had been replaced with anger, violence, and suicidal thoughts. He had been carrying that pain for a long time. But in the lines, “But I’ve been cleaning out this /

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