Description
As Long As the Rivers Flow: A Novel is a novel written by James Bartleman, the former lieutenant-governor of Ontario. He wrote the story to honour the memory of Native youth who have taken their lives as a result of the Indian residential school experiences of their parents and of the parents of their parents before them. The novel follows one girl, Martha, from the Cat Lake First Nation in Northern Ontario who is taken from her family at the age of six and flown far away to residential school. She doesn't speak English but is punished for speaking her language; most terrifying and bewildering; she is also falls victim to the school's attendant priest with an attraction to little girls. Returning home after ten years, Martha is left to deal with the trauma and abuse on her own. She is depressed and in her twenties turns to alcohol. After her son is apprehended by Children's Aid and her daughter is left with grandmother, Martha flees to the city. The intergenerational impacts of residential schools are brought home to the reader in this harrowing novel. Reading Level: 9