MARTEN FALLS’ CHANIE WENJACK

R. Wenjak was born on the Ogoki Post on the Marten Falls Reserve. At the age of nine he was forced, along with his two sisters, to attend the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School school in Kenora. Once there he was given the name Charlie. The school was funded by the Canadian government and overseen by the Women’s Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church. At the time 150 students attended the school. Wenjak began his schooling at the age of nine and was put in remedial classes soon after. He was known to have a good sense of humour according to the principal at the time and was always the first to recognize a pun or riddle.