1. Where do Christie Ann and Jonny come from?

2. Character Background Action takes place last night of December 29, 1929 in British Columbia, Canada Christie Ann - Ntlaka’pamux (Thompson River Salish) Jonny – Secqepemc (Shuswap). Miss Julie's mother brought them to the house to work as domestic servants. We learn that Jonny and CA spent 10 years in “school”. Miss Julie: “[My mother] said they come for you in cattle trucks. That they treat you like chattel. Just as our men do our women. She said there were rumours of the children being used the way our men use our women, too.”

3. What are these “schools”? Residential schools: extensive school system set up by the government (Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) and church-run. From 1880s – 1996, 150,000 Aboriginal children, ages 7-15, were forcibly taken from their families. Denied their heritage; forbidden to speak their language. If they disobeyed, subject to physical, emotional, psychological, and even sexual abuse. Trained to be manual and domestic labourers.

4. Indian Acts "The great aim of our legislation has been to do away with the tribal system and assimilate the Indian people in all respects with the other inhabitants of the Dominion as speedily as they are fit to change.” ~John A Macdonald, 1887 “This provision of the Indian Act was in place for close to 75 years and what that did was it prevented the passing down of our oral history. It prevented the passing down of our values. It meant an interruption of the respected forms of government that we used to have, and we did have forms of government be they oral and not in writing before any of the Europeans came to this country. We had a system that worked for us. We respected each other. We had ways of dealing with disputes.” ~Judge Alfred Scow, 1992

5. “Sister Marie Baptiste had a supply of sticks as long and thick as pool cues. When she heard me speak my language, she’d lift up her hands and bring the stick down on me. I’ve still got bumps and scars on my hands. I have to wear special gloves because the cold weather really hurts my hands. I tried very hard not to cry when I was being beaten and I can still just turn off my feelings…. And I’m lucky. Many of the men my age, they either didn’t make it, committed suicide or died violent deaths, or alcohol got them. And it wasn’t just my generation. My grandmother, who’s in her late nineties, to this day it’s too painful for her to talk about what happened to her at the school.” ~Musqueam Nation former chief George Guerin, Kuper Island school Stolen from our Embrace, 1998

6. “Two primary objectives of the residential school system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture. These objectives were based on the assumption Aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal. Indeed, some sought, as it was infamously said, “to kill the Indian in the child.” Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country.” ~Prime Minster Stephen Harper, Canadian Government Official Apology June 11, 2008

7. Questions Backstories: how do they add to adaptation? “Where did you pick up such ideas? Such words?” (Miss Julie) Christie Ann and Jonny’s reaction to Miss Julie’s questions about the schools. Miss Julie’s suicide. What do we make of it?