"Like Alice, I Was Brave" The Girl in the Text in Olemaun’s Residential School Narratives

• Published in: Girlhood studies Vol. 10; no. 3; pp. 121 - 136
• Main Author: Harde, Roxanne
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Berghahn Journals 22.12.2017; Berghahn Books, Inc
• Subjects: Authors; Basic Skills; Boarding Schools; Canadian literature; Catholic Schools; Children; Children & youth; Children's literature authors; Children's writers; Childrens Literature; Colonialism; Criticism and interpretation; Decolonization; Educational Experience; Elementary school students; Eskimo Aleut Languages; Eskimos; Females; Girls; Inuit; Land Settlement; Literacy; Literary Genres; Narratives; Native North Americans; Novels; Oppression; Photography; Pokiak-Fenton, Margaret; Political Issues; Portrayals; Reading Ability; Religious orders; Residential Schools; School Districts; School systems; Social aspects; Social Support Groups; Special Schools; Traditions; Trauma; Works; World Views; Canada; Montreal Quebec Canada; literacy; decolonization; First Nations; children’s literature; Inuvialuit; Alice in Wonderland; resilience
• ISSN: 1938-8209; 1938-8322
• DOI: 10.3167/ghs.2017.100310

In the genre of residential school narratives for children, Not My Girl (2014) stands out for the determination, courage, and resilience of its narrator, a young girl who chooses to go to a Catholic boarding school, and then draws on both her culture and a British novel, Alice in Wonderland, about a brave girl for strength and resilience. This article traces Olemaun’s journey as she follows Alice into literacy but finds her own methods of resisting colonial oppression and asserting Indigenous agency.