Item is a recorded audio interview with Justa Monk.
Audiocassette Summary
00’ 10” Justa talks about getting together a memorandum of understanding regarding boundaries for fishing grounds. Justa has also been discussing land claims with the provincial government. He talks about setting up the future for the younger generation. He says a fair land claim settlement would be the granting of traditional grounds.
5’ 27” Moran asks about the Save The River campaign.
6’ 14” Moran inquires about the diaries Justa is supposed to bring her. Justa wants to talk about his childhood. He feels his youth was better than the youth of today because they are given everything.
11’ 06” Moran asks about Justa’s life in Portage and to describe a day he remembers from his time there before going to residential school. He talks about not being allowed out after dark and being respectful of other people’s property. He discusses being disciplined by talking about what was right and wrong.
15’ 15” Justa talks about his time in residential school and how he was not allowed to speak his native language. He was shocked by the corporal punishment. Moran and Justa discuss about putting this in the book or not. He talks about not having any privacy in the residential school.
21’ 55” They return to discussing the personal details of Justa’s life in Portage, such as eating porridge for breakfast. Moran and Justa discuss fishing and hunting, and the times of the year he would be away from home.
27’ 55” Moran asks Justa about a day at the residential school. He talks about how he refused to buy a Bible. He participated in sports in his second year. He talks about the food and having to take cod liver oil. He talks about being a hockey player. He talks about the time he broke his leg at the residential school.
37’ 51” Moran asks Justa about which of his sisters would be willing to talk to her. They begin to talk about Justa’s philandering and how he had a lot of fun during that time. He talks about cheating on Theresa, but they stayed together. They continue to talk about his sex life. He talks about his relationship with Theresa. He talks about his daughter, Sharon.
47’ 00” Moran wants to talk about the trauma of John, his brother who was murdered. He tells Moran that was the time he started to turn his life around. They talk about his time in jail.
48’ 18” Moran starts the interview with Theresa, Justa’s wife. Moran asks Theresa about her personal details. She talks about her family past. She got married to get away from her parents, who were her adoptive parents.
52’ 40” Moran asks Theresa about going to residential school and how her parents would not allow it because they wanted to teach other responsibilities. Theresa talks about how some of her responsibilities were hunting beavers.
59’ 30” Theresa starts talking about how she found out she was adopted. She discusses her real brothers and sisters and how several of them passed away from tuberculosis. She talks about how she is close to her adoptive mother. Theresa does not know why she was adopted out.
1:05” 57” Moran asks Theresa about residential school. Theresa says she could not speak English, so was punished for speaking her native language. She says there was no corporal punishment against her. She talks about getting tuberculosis and getting transferred to a hospital where she stayed for eighteen months. She learned how to speak English while at the hospital.
1: 14’ 57” Theresa talks about getting married at the age of 18 in 1948. Theresa gets tuberculosis again in 1956, so was placed in a sanatorium. She returns to talking about her former husband and how he treated her poorly. He was sent to jail for about two years for assaulting Theresa.
1: 26’ 50” Theresa talks about how difficult it was to obtain money for her and the children.
1: 27’ 54” Moran asks about how she met Justa. She says she always liked him and thought he looked cute. She began to go out with Justa in the 1960s. She moved to Dawson Creek to be with Justa when he was released from jail.
1:33’ 35” End of tape.
Read less