A mother’s love

Words and Photo by Markus Siivola

When Anne Thrasher from Paulatuk thinks about residential school, the memories come flooding in. She feels obligated to improve the lives of her daughters.

When talking about her two daughters, Anne’s face lights up: they mean the world to her. She knows that she has made their journey to adulthood more joyful. She has always offered them her full attention and love. The compensation money she has received has therefore all gone to improve the education of her daughters.

Anne explains, “I was there for each and every year of their grade school. A big part of what I am able to give back to them is that they are more prepared than I would ever have been.”

“With the residential school payment that I received, they have an advantage to go out of Paulatuk, to go to post-secondary school, and not worry about payments and tuition fees or anything like that.”

With her mother’s support, Jerrita recently graduated from high school in Paulatuk and now attends Red Deer College.

“She is in political science and fine arts and enjoys so much going to her classes.”

When asked about the younger daughter’s aspirations, the mother continues, “It’s just a matter of knowing that my children are going to go for what they really love. If she wants to be a carpenter, well, she’ll be set for that. But she’s thinking of becoming an RCMP officer. And I’ll hopefully be able to change her mind”, she laughs.

“She has been in grade school for three years, and she has plaques for perfect attendance and excellent grades. It is a combination of devotion, determination, and showing them a love for education. Heather becomes distraught when school is interrupted by weather,” Anne laughs.

“I feel extremely proud of people who spent their compensation money very wisely – whether it was spent on a holiday, an extra machine, a TV, or camping equipment. I am so proud of these people in Paulatuk.”

“Everytime somebody comes to me in the office and tells me what they were able to buy, something that they weren’t able to do before, I can see the light in their eyes. They feel so good about it.”

So, did Anne get anything special for herself? She sure did: every different fishing hook possible. The fishing derby is coming up, and she is now more prepared than ever.

Thursday saw the Li’l Demons swarm the Chinook Shopping Mall to browse the stores and pick up some new clothes, gifts for family, and fun novelty items such as fake presson nails. Later that day the team headed to the Calgary Rebels Wrestling Room to practice with the team hosting the weekend’s tournament. The young wrestlers went to see the senior high school team practicing when they first arrived; including one wrestler that is the current National Champion in his weight class. Coaches Russell Friend and Russ Mendonca of the Rebels team worked with the Demons and some of their junior team members to go over a series of moves and allow both teams to mix up their wrestlers with athletes from the other team. While there was some shyness early on, the kids eventually got down to business and worked on their moves with their southern counterparts. Alainna Carpenter said “It was weird because there were more boys than girls” – an unusual occurrence for the Delta Demons squad.