They Called Me Number One Quotes

“Many Canadians are unaware of what happened in a country that proudly boasts of being one of the best places in the world to live…It is the greatest place to live for anyone, except for the original inhabitants of this land, the Aboriginal people.”
― Bev Sellars, They Called Me Number One

“Someone said that I am a survivor but I believe I am much more than that. I prefer to claim outright victory in this war against the residential-school experience. Even though I sometimes barely survived, I didn’t become one of the terrible statistics of Aboriginal people. In the end, I win!”
― Bev Sellars, They Called Me Number One

“Soon after arrival at residential school, we were assigned a number that would become our identity. I became Number 1 on the girls' side. Ninety years after she left St. Joseph's Mission, my grandmother still remembered she was Number 27. My mom remembers her number was 71. Thankfully, our numbers were not tattooed on our skin.”
― Bev Sellars, They Called Me Number One

“Aboriginal people in Canada have a story to tell, a story most non-Aboriginals don’t know about.”
― Bev Sellars, They Called Me Number One

“in”
― Bev Sellars, They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential School

“beating her up. That morning, before Michel went to work, he pulled all the curtains closed and locked the doors so no one would see what he had done to Mom. Two weeks after the beating, the Indian agent came to visit the village and in his rounds went to see Mom. Even after two weeks, he still wanted to take Mom to the hospital. Beatings from Michel were regular, and Mom knew to have a spare pair of clothes and shoes hidden outside the door on Saturday night so that when he came home from drinking in Williams Lake, she could escape to her aunt Annie’s house across the village. Michel must have been a good father because my sister Jean only has good memories of him, as do my other older brothers and sister Dolly.”
― Bev Sellars, They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential School

“Gram did not pay much attention to them that I remember”
― Bev Sellars, They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential School