The Education of Augie Merasty

The Education of Augie Merasty offers a courageous and intimate chronicle of life in a residential school.

Now a retired fisherman and trapper, Joseph A. (Augie) Merasty was one of an estimated 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children who were taken from their families and sent to government-funded, church-run schools, where they were subjected to a policy of "aggressive assimiliation."

As Merasty recounts, these schools did more than attempt to shape children in the ways of white society. They were taught to be ashamed of their native heritage and, as he experienced, often suffered physical and sexual abuse. Even as he looks back on this painful part of his childhood, Merasty's generous and authentic voice shines through. (From University of Regina Press)

Joseph "Augie" Merasty was a storyteller, fisherman, trapper, amateur boxer and "jack of all trades." He died at the age of 87 in 2017.

David Carpenter is an author and fisherman based in Saskatoon. He has written 10 books, including Niceman Cometh and A Hunter's Confession.

• Dave Carpenter: How I co-wrote The Education of Augie Merasty
• 48 books by Indigenous writers to read to understand residential schools
• Residential school survivor Augie Merasty: 'We were treated like animals'

• Author interviews

The Current22:00Residential school survivor Augie Merasty, 'We were treated like animals' - April 16, 2015

Featured VideoThis is the story of one man... elderly now with a childhood of brutality seared into his memory. He wrote a book to tell the world what he survived in a Manitoba residential school. His is the story of one little boy and the adults who betrayed him.