When We Were Alone

While gardening with her kókom, a young Cree girl asks why her grandmother wears bright colors and a long braid, speaks Cree, and enjoys time with her brother. Kókom explains that each habit is connected to her years at Indian Boarding School, where students were forbidden from wearing bright colors and faced other restrictions. Her answers describe small acts of resistance that she and her classmates used to endure emotionally. The story links a child’s questions with her elder’s memories and traditions.