Book of poetry shows resilience of residential school survivors [Video]

The resiliency of residential school survivors takes centre stage in Secwépemc poet Garry Gottfriedson’s latest collection, The Flesh of Ice. 

The collection is made up of more than 90 poems, many of which are named for individuals who, like Gottfriedson, were forced to attend the Kamloops Indian Residential School, which operated from 1890 to 1969, when the federal government took over administration from the Catholic Church to operate it as a residence for a day school until it closed in 1978. 

Up to 500 students were registered there at any given time, according to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, all of whom would have come from First Nations communities across B.C. and beyond.

Gottfriedson, who attended the institution for five years, drew on his own experience, as well as those of his siblings and parents, for the book. He described the process of gathering their stories as “powerful.”

“All of us that …