Constance Brissenden
For South Peace News
What to do with 24 years of research?
Before he died in April 2016, my partner Larry Loyie and I talked about our nine bins of residential school research. As co-researchers and writers, we had files, manuscripts, photos, correspondence, newspaper clippings, videos, recordings, and interviews.
Where would it all go?
The material was from a unique perspective. Loyie was a Cree residential school survivor and author of nine books. We had travelled across Canada and the USA collecting research.
Born in Slave Lake, Alta., Loyie lived in Vancouver for many years before “coming home” to High Prairie and northern Alberta in 2007. On the coast, he had developed a close connection with the University of British Columbia and its new Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (IRSHDC). The choice was easy. The centre welcomed our donation with open arms. The goal was to create a Loyie Brissenden research archive for future students.
First off, I organized the contents of the nine bins. Working without Larry was sad and exhausting. But after one year, 32 boxes of files were ready to go.
I didn’t know it then, but the archive project was just beginning. More than a dozen staff worked with me to make it happen.
On Nov. 4, 2024, I walked through the Centre’s doors into an exhibit entitled Larry Loyie, Writing is Healing. Banners, display cases, and a video are all part of the exhibit which will be open until May 23, 2025. The launch that day was one of the most satisfying of my life.
The day also marked the launch of the Loyie-Brissenden Collection, an archive available on the IRSHDC website for students and others around the world.
Loyie was one of the first to write about a survivor’s experience in residential school. In his play, Ora Pro Nobis, Pray for Us, he stepped back to the 1940s and his six years as a child living at St. Bernard Mission residential school in Grouard. He focused on the friendship of the boys, and how it helped them survive their years away from home. He was one of more than 145,000 Indigenous children in more than 140 schools across Canada.
Larry’s play, which I directed, was first performed in 1994, 12 years before the Canadian government apologized to residential school survivors. Loyie went on to write nine books, four of which were about his residential school experience.
Back in 1994, Evan Tlesla Adams played George, the Larry Loyie character in Ora Pro Nobis, Pray for Us.
“Larry was excited about writing, just on fire . . . He wanted to write, and he wanted this play to live,” recalled Adams, a Coast Salish actor and today, a renowned medical doctor.
“He wanted people to know the truth, and nothing would stop him.”
The Loyie-Brissenden Collection is now the largest personal Indigenous archive in Canada. In the words of Kristin Kozar, IRSHDC’s executive director, “We’re creating an archive that goes beyond the basics, to create a portrait of a survivor. Larry Loyie always said the archive wasn’t about him alone, it was about all survivors, the thousands who faced the challenges of their school years.”
Loyie shed tears to put truth on paper. He wrote: “Writing is healing, one way for us to deal with the anger that is present amongst us. I now use writing as part of my healing and I’m sure it can help others with similar problems. Healing is a human problem, not a racial one.”
I recall sitting with Larry in our log house north of High Prairie surrounded by our bins of research. He was intensely proud of his Cree culture and deeply interested in the lives of all survivors. Many are featured in our national history, Residential Schools, With the Words and Images of Survivors. This inspired me to pass on our research for students of all ages through UBC.
Larry Loyie, Writing is Healing, is open to May 23, 2025, Monday-Thursday, noon to 4 p.m., Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre, 1985 Learners Walk, UBC Campus, Vancouver, BC.
Environment Canada Forecast 
Alberta 511 Road Reports 
Alberta Wildfire Status Map 
Thank you for sharing news about the Larry Loyie, Writing is Healing exhibit in South Peace News. We always had a close connection to SPN and editor Chris Clegg. I sold our log house in January 2017, the year after Larry died and now live in Edmonton.
The group photo is actually of Larry’s son Brad, on right, with Larry’s grandaughters and great-grandchildren. They all attended the opening on November 4, 2024, which would have been Larry Loyie’s 91st birthday.
If anyone makes it down to Vancouver, it’s not hard to visit the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre. Email me for easiest directions from the 99 bus stop. Thank you to all, from the bottom of my heart, Constance Brissenden (constancebwriter@gmail.com).