Through healing and poetry, Kamloops survivor denied

residential school 'the satisfaction that it killed me'

Guest: Dennis Saddleman

The Current
How Dennis Saddleman used poetry to heal from the abuses of
Kamloops residential school

Questions:

1. For how many years, did Dennis Saddleman attend the Kamloops Indian residential
school?

2. Dennis Saddleman states that “it was pretty tiring and pretty shook up there [in
Kamloops].” What has he been doing to help restore his power and energy?

3. How did Dennis Saddleman almost die at the Kamloops Indian Residential School?

4. Saddleman sometimes wonders whether he was saved by whom?

5. What did Saddleman do that led to harsh punishment at the hands of the
supervisor?

6. What causes Saddleman to experience flashbacks of this punishment?

7. Why is it important for you to speak out about this and tell those stories?

8. What experience at the Residential School did it take Saddleman a “long, long time”
to share?

9. What did Saddleman consider doing in the days after this experience?
10. What was the Principal’s response when Saddleman approached him about this
experience?

11. How did Saddleman deal with this trauma after returning home from the
Residential School?

12. What was it that saved him?

13. What has poetry has helped Saddleman to do?

14. Where and when did Saddleman recite his incredibly powerful poem?

15. What is the title of the poem?

16. When did Saddleman write the poem?

17. What scared Saddleman upon arriving at the Residential School as a six-year-old?

18. To this day, what does Saddleman sense when he walks by the school building or on
the lawn?

19. What is the title of the poem that Saddleman wrote for CBC’s “The Current?”

20. Name two persuasive/poetic devices (think “A FOREST DIM”) that feature
prominently in this poem?
21. What does Saddleman consider his “church?”