CANADA
APTN National News
August 16, 2017
Shirley McLean
APTN National News
Emma Shorty still remembers her days at the Chooutla residential school and more specifically, the hunger that went along with it.
“There was hardly any food,” Shorty told APTN National News.
According to a study by the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the severe hunger and malnutrition students faced at residential schools are still causing health issues for Indigenous peoples today including diabetes, and obesity.
Co-author Ian Mosby said previous research on malnutrition in schools, along with testimony from survivors, was the basis for the report.
“What we found was what many survivors have talked about is this unending hunger,” said Mosby.
Read the CMAJ Report here: Hunger was never absent
Shorty was born on her family trap line in 1933.
At the age of four, she was taken from her family and placed in Chooutla in Carcross, Yukon.
“The food wasn’t good and they said it was because of world war two but we could have eaten better,” said Shorty.
According to the Shorty, students often had to fend for themselves to eat.
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