The Boy from Buzwah: A Life in Indian Education by Cecil King (review)

Reviewed by: The Boy from Buzwah: A Life in Indian Education by Cecil King Celia Haig-Brown (bio) The Boy from Buzwah: A Life in Indian Education by Cecil King University of Regina Press, 2022 "THE PURPOSE OF THIS WRITING is to finally set to paper the story of my life" (1). This humble beginning leads to a wealth of insights not only into Cecil King's life growing up in his home community of Two Clock but also into developments of "Indian Education" across Canada. Affirmation of frustrations encountered, resistance to clichéd narratives, and most importantly King's indomitable spirit relishing his Indigenous roots and branches all breathe life into the text. Narration and counternarrative complicate reductionist understandings of what it means to be Odawa within the "Niswi Shkoden Wiikanendowin (the Three Fires Confederacy)," overlayed but never overshadowed by the colonial state called Canada (2). The book is organized around his early life "on the reserve," residential school, his varied careers in education, the amazing educational "revolution" in Indian education in Canada starting in the 1970s, and finally his reflections on the meaning he now takes from the life he has lived so far. Born in 1932, King was raised by grandparents trained at residential school to recognize the power of the English language and knowledge system. Combined with the parallel power of the third adult in his household, Kohkwehns, "the teacher that stands out from all the others" and her traditional Ojibwe knowledge and language, King's strong foundations grounded his forays into the larger world (5). His considerations detail: time with Kohkwehns in the bush as somewhat disapproving grandparents go off to work, four qualified First Nations teachers in his elementary school, serving as valedictorian at his Indian residential school graduation, using Ojibwe language for success with rural students, the 1960s' return to the power of drum and dance in his community, his role in Indigenous teacher education programs in several provinces, his archival study of Jean-Baptiste Assiginack, and the list goes on. King's discussion of his residential school experience exemplifies his ability to consider each facet of his life from a range of perspectives over time. He circles into ever-deepening understandings of the impacts. Having "done well . . . in the high school entrance exams" following his first eight years of schooling in his home community, he left in the big black bus to End Page 151 attend Garnier Residential School (Spanish) (113). His grandparents told him he had more to learn. There the Jesuit priests focused on classic Western education. King points out that he and his friends never felt that Christianity was being pounded into their heads: it was already a part of his life through his grandparents' teachings, and the boys "were as devout as the average little Catholic boys anywhere!" (119). He takes particular exception to academics who refute or dismiss his stories and those of his friend Basil Johnston in his 1988 book Indian School Days: King did not experience sexual abuse: he was not a victim of the schools. In fact, he thrived in the educational context. For older students who came to the schools with an express purpose, the scholarly work could prove quite positive even as the priests' racist attitudes had less immediate impact. The boys were told they would never "measure up" to become priests themselves; later in the text, King comes to see a shortcoming of the schools in not preparing students to "live with other Canadians" (156). In his doctoral studies, reading Jesuit history and their documented attitudes, he recalled retreats at his school where students were "upbraided for our barbarism" (246). The book is about much more than residential schools. The revolution in teacher education based in the landmark document Indian Control of Indian Education (NIB 1971) provided direction as King headed the development of ITEP in Saskatchewan. He held a Rockefeller Fellowship with the Newberry Library, worked on Indigenous languages for Manitoba's legal system, made continuing contributions to teacher education across provinces, and connected with so many familiar and famous players: Mary Lou Fox, Clive Linklater, Murray Sinclair, Verna St. Denis, Rita Bouvier, Stan Wilson. Throughout the text, King's...