Consequently I have only three pictures to show you , of writing which struck me particularly up in the section called " The Boarding School Experience". Having looked at some of the beautiful artefacts downstairs , I had a feeling that this wasnt going to be such a good hour we were going to be experiencing next , as nothing compared to the years of lives suffered by the young children who were torn from their homes and families often with armed soldiers standing by in case of protest or problem , whilst the children were taken and placed in alien boarding schools to "civilise and educate" them according to the (white) ways of the world . We saw a barber's chair where their long plaits were shorn off. Black and white photos depicting their clothes being removed and showing children later wearing uniforms. Poignant pictures of native Americans with faces so dignified when they arrived looking ...what is the word... less.....faraway ... lost and alone and like stolen beings after the "boarding school experience".
Many of the children didn't survive and succumbed to TB , a source of some interest to me due to my friend's recent experience with that disease and my visit to her in the " isolation" of the local hospital .
The pictures I took , not knowing whether any of them would come out , reflected those interests.
There were many more I could have taken but it seemed wrong to be furiously snapping rather than just walking around trying to imagine the things that happened in the world , and are still happening , in different guises.
