Description
Going Back Home is the story of Noreen’s experiences before and after residential school and foster homes. Through a series of dreams, which at times appear as real life to her, Noreen tries to make sense of all that has happened to her and her family especially her siblings during and after their lives in residential school and foster homes. She questions her indecisiveness; her explicable feeling of inadequacy and her powerlessness. It is only after telling Marion the story of her life in residential school and a cruel foster home, that she begins to pull the pieces together finding reasons for why she feels like this. She also visits the foster home, which fill her with dread yet helps her try and overcome the cruelty she experiences and accept that she is a strong person. She visits the Mohawk Institute, the Mush Hole, with her sisters and family to connect with her past experiences to give her strength in her daily life. Marie Hess is a Mohawk writer from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. She is a residential school survivor.