The Education of Augie Merasty: a Residential School Memoir by Joseph Auguste Merasty with David Carpenter
This short memoir offers a first-hand account of the residential school experience. Merasty wrote this at the age of 86, looking back on his experience as well as others he was close to, but who are no longer around to tell their own stories. He helped many of those others with their testimony for the Working Group on Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Exploratory Dialogues, which was the first stage of the Commission.
Merasty attended St. Therese Residential School in Sturgeon Lake, Saskatchewan from 1935 to 1944. His experiences, while awful, were not the worst of residential school abuse. He did have contact with his family, and they even attended some school functions, which many students did not have.
Merasty wrote a letter to the University of Saskatchewan asking for help in writing this memoir and was connected with Carpenter. It took several years before the project came to completion, partly due to David's other commitments, and partly to Merasty's availability.
Merasty own personality shows strongly, with his strong sense of self, and a great sense of humour.
An important story in our country's history.
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