"Images that evoke the dislocation and cultural and physical violence of their shared past. ... [A] creative approach to addressing memory and trauma." — Kristen Lubben, Executive Director, Magnum Foundation
DEEDEE LERAT
Marieval Indian Residential School
1967-1970
“When I was 8, Mormons swept across Saskatchewan. So I was taken out of residential school and sent to a Mormon foster home for five years. I’ve been told I’m going to hell so many times and in so many ways. Now I’m just scared of God.”
ELWOOD FRIDAY
St. Phillips Indian Residential School
1951-1953
“I’ve never told anyone what went on there. It’s shameful. I am ashamed. I’ll never tell anyone, and I’ve done everything to try to forget.”
SERAPHINE KAY
Qu’Appelle Indian Residential School
1974-1975
“I was raped at school. He was an old man, the janitor. I didn’t tell anyone for decades, because I thought people would judge me. The only person I ever told was my mother [who went to Muskowekwan Residential School]. All she said was, ‘That’s how I was brought up, too.’”
Photographs: Daniella Zalcman
Foreword: Marlene McNab
Cree Translation: Doreen Oakes
Cree Editor: Sol Ratt
Photo Editor: Régina Monfort
Text Editor: David Stuart
Design Concept: Daniella Zalcman
Design: Mark Weinberg
Signs of Your Identity, the winner of the 2016 FotoEvidence Book Award and Magnum Foundation's 2016 Inge Morath Award, is a 120-page photo book that features composite portraits and interview excerpts from 25 First Nations residential school survivors. This work explores the schools' legacy of coercive assimilation, physical and sexual assault, and intergenerational trauma as a tool of cultural genocide.
The reporting was supported by two grants from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. The book was published in October 2016 and is now sold out.