Fatty Legs

Post date: Oct 17, 2011 8:24:14 PM

This memoir is written by an Inuit woman named Olemaun Pokiak that begged to go to the "outsider's school" when she was young so she could learn to read like her big sister. Despite the reluctance of her father who had been to the outsider's school, her persistence wore him down. The realities of life in a school run by harsh nuns was not what Margaret, her outsider name, had expected. However, she learned to adapt and she did learn to read. This true tale opens a whole new world to eyes of someone on the "outside" of what native peoples went through to be assimilated into a different culture.

There are several photographs at the end of the text showing the author, her family and the places in the story. Read Fatty Legs by Christy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret Pokiak-Fenton.