Drawer 49 New Denver BC

In 1954 at the behest of the British Columbia government Elizabeth Hlookoff was apprehended by the RCMP for habitual truancy. She had never been to school.<br /><br />Her parents were members of a sect of Doukhobors called the Sons of Freedom (Freedomites) who refused to send their children to school. The Freedomites who were pacifists believed that public schools taught militarism.<br /><br />The BC government wanted to eradicate this troublesome sect. As with First Nations children the government believed that apprehending these children and placing them in residential schools would civilize them. But the majority of British Columbians don't know about this. It is their history.<br /><br />Told from a child's perspective Drawer 49 is a series of short stories chronicling Elizabeth's apprehension incarceration and experiences at the New Denver BC residential school where she was confined between the ages of seven and eleven.