Cree author Larry Loyie honoured
After six years of intense work, the Writing is Healing exhibit opens
Six years ago, I stood in my Edmonton living room surrounded by 32 boxes, the product of 24 years that I spent with my partner, Cree author and residential school Survivor Larry Loyie. Inside the boxes were files, manuscripts, photos, correspondence, newspaper clippings, videos, recordings, and interviews. Soon, the boxes would be shipped to the University of British Columbia’s Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (IRSHDC).
Before he died in April 2016, Larry Loyie and I talked about our nine bins of residential school research. Where would it all go? Born in Alberta, Larry had lived in Vancouver for many years. He had a close connection with UBC and its new residential school centre. The choice was easy. The Centre welcomed our donation with open arms.
My first task was to organize the contents of the bins. Working without Larry was sad and exhausting. But after one year, the 32 boxes were ready to go. I didn’t know it then, but the archive project was just beginning. More than a dozen staff worked with me to make it happen.
On November 4, 2024, I walked through the Centre’s doors into an exhibit entitled Larry Loyie, Writing is Healing. Banners, display cases, and a video are all part of the exhibit which will stay up until May 23, 2025. The launch was one of the most satisfying days of my life.
The day also marked the launch of the Loyie-Brissenden Collection, an archive available on the IRSHDC website for students and others around the world.
The residential school system affected more than 145,000 Indigenous children in more than 140 schools across Canada. Larry Loyie was one of the first to write about a survivor’s experience in residential school. In his play, Ora Pro Nobis, Pray for Us, he stepped back to the 1940s and his six years as a child forced to live at St. Bernard Mission school in Grouard, Alberta. He focused on the friendship of the boys, and how it helped them survive their years away from home. The children and their parents had no choice. The Canadian government was determined to wipe out their Indigenous cultures and languages.
Larry’s play, which I directed, was first performed in 1994 — 12 years before the Canadian government apologized to residential school survivors. Larry went on to write nine books, four of which were about the residential school experience.
Back in 1994, Evan Tlesla Adams played George, the Larry Loyie character in Ora Pro Nobis, Pray for Us. “Larry was excited about writing, just on fire… He wanted to write, and he wanted this play to live,” recalled Adams, a Coast Salish actor and, today, a renowned medical doctor. “He wanted people to know the truth, and nothing would stop him.”
As a young actor, Dr. Adams was just beginning to learn about his parents’ time in a BC residential school. Like most Canadians, he was learning about a hidden history. Today, we have all learned so much more.
The Loyie-Brissenden Collection is now the largest personal Indigenous archive in Canada. In the words of Kristin Kozar, IRSHDC’s executive director, “We’re creating an archive that goes beyond the basics, to create a portrait of a survivor. Larry Loyie always said the archive wasn’t about him alone, it was about all survivors, the thousands who faced the challenges of their school years.”
Larry Loyie was a groundbreaking activist who shed tears to put truth on paper. He wrote:
“Writing is healing, one way for us to deal with the anger that is present amongst us. I now use writing as part of my healing and I’m sure it can help others with similar problems. Healing is a human problem, not a racial one.”
Larry Loyie, Writing is Healing, is open until May 23, 2025, Monday-Thursday, noon to 4 pm, Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre, 1985 Learners Walk, UBC Campus, Vancouver, BC. For information: 604.822.6941.
To view the Larry Loyie, Writing is Healing video and Loyie-Brissenden Collection: https://irshdc.ubc.ca/
Larry Loyie and Constance Brissenden website: www.firstnationswriter.com
For more on Larry Loyie books: www.goodminds.com
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Constance. Your dedication is an inspiration.