By Joel van der Veen

DAVIDSON — Ruth Cameron left her home at age five, forced into a culture that was not her own.

“We were taught in foreign ways, ways that our ancestors didn’t have,” recalled Cameron, describing her experience as a child attending the Indian Residential School at Lebret.

It wasn’t until well into her adult life that she was able to overcome the anger that endured from that experience.

That came in large part from embracing her own past and heritage, or as she called it, “coming to know who I am.”

Today she continues on that path, working to educate, and to promote and preserve her Indigenous culture, language and heritage.

“I had to fight my own demons, if you want to call them that,” she said. “But today I am very proud of who I am.”

She shared part of that journey during a presentation at the Sacred Heart parish hall in Davidson on Sept. 17.

Cameron was invited to speak to the parish as part of the Treaty Elder Series, an initiative from the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Among the recommendations of that report was a call to churches to develop education strategies, teaching their congregations about the history, impact and legacy of the residential school system.

The events are also geared to help parishioners learn about Indigenous spirituality and respect these traditions and practices.

Cameron’s presentation followed the noon mass and a potluck lunch, with about 30 people in attendance.

For more than 150 years, government-sponsored residential schools were operated across Canada, serving as a means of assimilating Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian society.

The system reached its peak in the early 1930s, when 80 institutions were in operation.

The schools were gradually phased out beginning in the late 1960s. The last one — Gordon Residential School, located in Punnichy, Sask. — closed its doors in 1996.

During her speech, Cameron described her experience at the school in Lebret, where perfection and total obedience were expected, even demanded.

She recalled singing and praying in Latin, not knowing what the words meant, and trying to please the nuns.

“I wanted to get to heaven,” she said. “I was scared of the fire. I didn’t want to burn.”

At age 14 she left the residential school and began attending public high school, but the transition was also a challenging one.

She recalled one exercise in a Grade 11 class that required students to do research using the phone book. It took her days to work up the courage to tell her teacher that she had neither a telephone nor a phone book at her home.

After graduating, she eventually came to work for the Saskatoon Catholic school system as a home and school liaison, where she was employed for 32 years. She and her late husband Oliver raised four children together.

Cameron said she still sees echoes of the residential school system and the legacy it left behind. She drew a connection between this and the current epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women, which number more than 1,200.

“My experience in life has helped me to understand my own people,” she said, adding that Indigenous people must work to preserve and promote their culture, languages and heritage.

She said her presentation in Davidson, to an audience made up largely of non-Indigenous people, is part of the journey toward reconciliation.

“We want to carry this through,” she said. “Today, we want to see a better understanding.”

Mary Jane Morrison, speaking on behalf of the parish, thanked Cameron for her visit, calling her “an inspiration for all of us.”

Cameron presented the parish with a plaque commemorating Treaty 6. The agreement covers much of central Alberta and Saskatchewan, including Davidson.

The parish intends to invite her back at a future date to dedicate the plaque and hold a smudging ceremony.