1980s book on residential school experiences was rejected by first publisher who didn't believe it
CBC
WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
Celia Haig-Brown's book Resistance and Renewal: Surviving the Indian Residential School was one of the first texts to describe the experiences of residential school survivors from their perspectives, particularly those who had been forced to attend the Kamloops Indian Residential School.
It was published in 1988. Since then, many more books have been published by Indigenous writers, academics and survivors detailing those experiences. News outlets have written hundreds of stories. And the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created, releasing reports and sharing survivors' experiences.
But when Haig-Brown set out to write her book more than three decades ago, there was very little to compare it with — and that presented its own challenges, including pushback from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous readers, because the legacy of residential schools had barely been questioned outside of Indigenous communities up to that point.
Haig-Brown, whose England-born father Roderick Haig-Brown was a celebrated writer and conservationist in B.C., is not Indigenous. She says she became interested in residential schools after speaking with Indigenous friends about their time in that system. She interviewed their family members to learn more.
But when she submitted her book to a publisher, Haig-Brown says she was quickly dismissed by an editor, who said she had a friend whose experiences teaching at a residential school were much different from those described in the book.
A persistent person with a drive to share the truth, Haig-Brown found another publisher. Tillicum Library Imprint, a division of Arsenal Pulp Press run by residential school survivor Randy Fred of the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation, was interested.
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