Content warning: The residential school system is a topic that can cause trauma from memories of past abuse. Messages around the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation can be an unwelcome reminder to those who suffered hardships through generations of government policies that were harmful to Indigenous peoples. A 24-hour support line (1-866-925-4419) provides crisis referral services to survivors and their families and explains how to access further health support from the Government of Canada. The Hope for Wellness Helpline provides immediate, culturally safe, crisis intervention support for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis, 24 hours a day, seven days a week through its hotline, 1-855-242-3310, or its online chat at hopeforwellness.ca. The service is available in English, French, and, on request, in Cree, Ojibway, and Inuktitut.
DUNNVILLE — Josie Penny began writing her story for her four children who could never have known the Labrador childhood she left behind. Decades later, that story has travelled much farther – into classrooms where a new generation is learning from the life she once feared her own family would never understand.
Penny, who was born to Métis parents in Labrador and identifies as a Labrador Métis woman, grew up with a family life closely tied to the land and water.
To understand why preserving that story mattered so much to Penny, it starts with a childhood shaped by isolation, hardship, family, and eventually separation.
Born in Labrador in 1943, Penny spent her early years moving with her family between a winter home in the woods and a summer home on Spotted Island.
“We lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle,” she recalled.
Life was isolated and difficult, with the family relying heavily on the land. Penny said her father gave her mother a sewing machine and a .22 rifle after they married, tools that helped her feed and care for the family while he was away hunting.
“There were no stores,” Penny said, recalling that staples such as flour and molasses were among the few supplies purchased during occasional trips to town.
Her childhood changed when she followed an older sister to Lockwood Boarding School in Cartwright. Penny said she had wanted badly to attend, pleading with her mother until arrangements were made. Once there, however, she experienced bullying, harsh conditions, and sexual violence.
She recalled being teased for being the smallest child and for wetting the bed. One summer, while other children returned to their families, Penny was kept at the school and watched them leave from the dock.
“I just started screaming and crying because they were all going home,” she said.
Later, Penny said a group of boys pulled her into a woodshed and sexually assaulted her.
“That’s something else I’ve had to live with in my life,” she said.
When Penny eventually returned to her family, another loss awaited her. Her parents had moved while she was away, meaning the home and surroundings she remembered were gone.
“I lost my sense of belonging and my sense of home,” she said.
Reconnecting with her family would take years. Penny said later trips back to Labrador helped her rebuild relationships with siblings she had been separated from.
She also carried a feeling of being less important than others. At 11, Penny was sent to work for other families while attending school with their children. She recalled serving meals in dining rooms while eating separately in kitchens.
“All of these incidents made me feel even more less-than,” she said. “I had no value.”
Penny left home as a teenager and later moved with her husband, Keith, to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, where their four children were born and raised. The family moved to Ontario in 1977.
That move prompted Penny to begin looking back.
“When we came to Ontario, I started thinking about my childhood and that my children would know nothing of this lifestyle that I lived,” she said.
That realization became the foundation for her writing.
“I wanted them to know. So, I wrote my story for my children,” Penny said.
Two of her books have since been published, including So Few on Earth, with a third written and awaiting publication. Penny said she also hopes to write another book combining her story with that of her husband and family.
What began as a record for her own children has since reached young people far beyond her family.
Penny said she learned from a friend who was a teacher that her work was being used in school curriculum, including in Ontario and the Maritimes, as a way of teaching history.
“What makes me feel really good about what I’ve done is that they’re teaching it in the schools,” she said. “I’m very proud of that.”
She has also spoken about her experiences at schools, libraries, and private gatherings over the years, sharing the story she originally never expected to extend beyond her children.
Ahead of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30, Penny said she does not see herself as a political voice. Her purpose, she said, has always been much simpler.
“I just told my story as I saw it, as I remembered it.”
Now surrounded by a family that includes nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, she remains proud that those memories will be kept for generations to come.
