Douglas Todd: Despite abusive nuns, Frances Ceen-ne Carlick fondly recalls one residential school teacher who encouraged her to dance and wear her family's bear skin at the annual Christmas concert. "I think that really saved me."

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The Catholic nuns at the Northern B.C. residential school that Frances Ceen-ne Carlick attended were strict and abusive, with some verging on sadistic.

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But there was one teacher, a woman from Chicago, who was an inspiration.

Especially at Christmas.

“Miss Jacquie gave us a lot more freedom than the nuns” allowed in the 1960s at Lower Post residential school, just south of the Yukon border, Carlick said.

“She would have five of us practise as tap dancers for the Christmas concert. Others would do ballet. That kind of thing helped get us away from the nuns and the boring, boring routine. I think that really saved me,” said Carlick, 74, now living in Vancouver.

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“Miss Jacquie instilled something really special. At one Christmas concert we did the nativity scene as part of a play. We were all dressed up in our native Indian dancing gear. I even brought my bear skin to school for it, which was very rare. Nobody else encouraged us to do anything like that.”

After attending Catholic residential schools in Lower Post and, later, Whitehorse, Carlick went on to marry a Coast Salish man, another residential school survivor, and have three children. She taught in public schools and colleges across B.C.

She would often be called upon to welcome people to events focused on Indigenous affairs and reconciliation, at which times she would offer prayers, wear her button blanket and headband and often use a hand drum.

Asked about her feelings regarding Christmas, she emphasizes,........

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