74 pages • 2 hours read
Fatty Legs: A True Story
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Afterword-Closing Note 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Afterword Summary
The 10th anniversary edition of Fatty Legs concludes with a few short chapters written by Christy Jordan-Fenton, Margaret-Olemaun’s daughter-in-law. The Afterword directly addresses colonialism and the residential school system. She explains that even when children were abused at schools, they carried with them “the ancestral knowledge of all the generations of grandparents before them to know how to live comfortably where they were” (85). In this framework, the children have power from their culture and their long family lines. This is not necessarily a familiar or shared understanding of self to non-Indigenous readers, but it is essential to the authors of the book and the tens of thousands of children who attended these schools. Jordan-Fenton explains that the schools took children away from advanced tasks they performed in their home communities and exploited them for “menial jobs for the outsiders who were taking over their territories” (86). She similarly refrains from sugarcoating other horrors: the push to eradicate Indigenous languages, bringing kids to school by kidnapping them, and the poor living conditions that ranged from bad food to harsh discipline by unqualified and occasionally criminal teachers (86-87).
Jordan-Fenton reminds the reader that these conditions had intense and lasting psychological effects on the children. Schools tried to make students turn away from their traditions and their families’ lifestyles. When students adapted to their new conditions but returned home, some family and community members considered them outsiders. The time away from parents and siblings also alienated the children from traditional family structures and familial affection.
These abuses, the author says, “run so deep they will be felt for several generations” (89). Very similar to the impact of historical strength and knowledge, then, is community suffering and trauma. Those who attended boarding schools and returned to traditions acted with great courage in revitalizing their Indigenous languages and identity when they were drilled not to do so during their youths. The last part of the chapter explains that these communities are still healing, but “we are seeing a renaissance of cultural pride and reclamation” as time goes on (90).
Scrapbook Summary: “Olemaun’s Scrapbook”
This edition contains 15 pages that feature 30 pictures of scenes from the High Arctic and residential schools. Many show Margaret-Olemaun and her family, including her father, mother, and siblings. There are also pictures of the school buildings, the adjacent hospital, some nuns, and a classroom. Several pictures show the traditional clothing of Margaret-Olemaun’s people, including kamik (soft boots), fur-lined parkas, and beading and embroidery done by Margaret-Olemaun herself. The pictures come from the authors’ personal collections as well as libraries and archives in Canada.
Closing Note 1 Summary: “A Note on Language”
This short chapter explains the specific language choices that the author employed in this edition of the story. For example, the author uses “Inuvialuit” instead of the more general term “Inuit,” which is used in the mainstream to describe First Nations and Alaskan Native peoples in and near the Arctic Circle. She indicates, “Perhaps most importantly, we have updated the treatment of Margaret-Olemaun’s own name” (109). In the scenes before her journey to school, the text uses only “Olemaun.” At school, she becomes “Margaret-Olemaun.” The author says that the story in its original published form relied mostly on “Margaret,” but Margaret-Olemaun has reclaimed her Indigenous name in the years since. The guiding principle in telling these histories, the author says, is to adhere to “self-determination for Indigenous people” (109).
Closing Note 2 Summary: “A Note on the Writing Process”
In this note, Jordan-Fenton explains the process of working with an elder in recording painful history and publishing a personal account. She says that the process begins with simply listening to her mother-in-law’s stories. She asks questions to try to get a complete understanding of the scenes, characters, and lessons. Then, she does research for context before finally starting the drafting process. Margaret-Olemaun reads and critiques the drafts until they satisfy her vision and honor her story. Then, the writing goes to an editor that helps with matters of story construction and organization. After final consultations with both Jordan-Fenton and Pokiak-Fenton, the writing moves to print.
Afterword-Closing Note 2 Analysis
The final, short chapters of the 10th-anniversary edition of Fatty Legs are not in Margaret-Olemaun’s voice. Instead of telling a narrative story, they provide context and guidance on telling Indigenous stories in this format. It is important for readers to understand the broader context of residential schools, the enduring and destructive legacies of colonialism, and Indigenous healing and community-building in the 21st century. Many elders—many survivors—have stories like Margaret-Olemaun’s. Some people share those stories, and others do not.
While this section acknowledges the historical distance between the present and the time in which the residential school system operated at its apex, it also highlights the continuities in the history. Healing takes a long time and the work of many generations. Reckoning with historical injustices is complicated and painful emotional labor. Colonial systems also wreaked havoc in Indigenous communities in more tangible ways, like disrupting family life, permanently altering physical communities, and exploiting Indigenous people and labor into poverty and oppression.
Books like Fatty Legs, and sources that amplify Indigenous voices, help in the healing process and also in the education process. These topics are not always prevalent in mainstream education curricula in Canada or the United States. Part of the colonial project was to erase Indigenous culture, stories, and people. While that effort was not successful, because people managed to survive and remain Indigenous at heart and in practice, national histories that do not acknowledge the events related to those discussed in the book perpetuate this erasure.
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