Told in the voice of an Indigenous protagonist, the book offers readers a first-hand account of historical anti-Indigenous racism and a story that exemplifies how the targeted populations adapted, resisted, and retained their cultures and identities.Brief Summary of Book: Fatty Legs: A True Story by Christy Jordan-Fenton In a report produced by Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission-a government body created to collect data on residential school history and educate modern Canadians on the past and present effects of misguided assimilationist policy-the commission determined that the residential schools constituted “cultural genocide.” While the system and concurrent policies diminished Indigenous populations, ignored tribal sovereignty, and damaged Native communities, Indigenous peoples and their diverse cultures managed to survive, even if they were altered by outsiders. The story of the two school years, however, is ultimately one about triumph, perseverance, and resilience. The title Fatty Legs comes from a nickname that other students used to torment Margaret-Olemaun author after a cruel nun made her wear unflattering bright red stockings while the other girls wore gray. and was marked by the same assimilation mission and abusive treatment of pupils). Her recollections match the patterns of thousands of other residential school students who have published accounts or given interviews of their time in residential schools across the continent (a similar system extended through the U.S. Intimidation, humiliation, abuse, and suffering marked Margaret-Olemaun’s schooling experience. At eight years old, Olemaun Pokiak (her birth name) left her home on Banks Island, within the ancestral homelands of her Inuvialuit community (the Inuit people of the Northwestern Arctic in present-day Canada) and went to the residential Catholic school in Aklavik, on the mainland.
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