Janie Helen Mianscum Wabanonik

My name is Janie Helen Mianscum Wabanonik.

I was born on February 24, 1958 in Amos (at the Hospital) in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, in Quebec, in Canada.

In my family, we were 10 children, two died. We were four brothers and six daughters. I was the third.

I have very fond memories of my childhood. One in particular: I must have been eight or nine years old, it was in the summer. We stayed in a cabin in the woods, it was at Lake Kapitachuan. There was no electricity and we only had a gas stove. I loved fishing with my stepfather and my mother. My stepfather was a guide for the Americans. He showed them the right spot to fish and how to do it well.
I also remember a day when my mother went for a canoe trip. The rest of us had stayed at the chalet and when my mother came back with a beautiful purple flower, she gave it to me. She told me that she had thought of me when she picked it, because she knew that I was very fond of flowers. My sisters were so jealous of me. My mother used to teach us how to make bannock (indigenous bread). My grandmother made donuts, at home it was often a
big feast and she taught me how to make it.

When I was young, I wanted to be a nurse but I couldn't. I also wanted to be a daycare teacher.

I started my studies at the age of six, in English, in a boarding school for native people. It was in La Tuque and we lived in Press (about 800km away). I was going there by train. Sometimes we could go home at Christmas or Easter, but that was rare. The first year I went to this boarding school, I did not return home from September to June. During this year, I cried often
my mother who I missed terribly.

At home, I spoke the Cree language (some English too). At boarding school, the missionaries (people who educated us) prevented us from speaking in the Cree language, because the white people thought that we were saying bad things in our language. Since they didn't understand us, they didn't want us to communicate with each other in Cree. But, we did it in secret (laughs). At one point,
we had a missionary who spoke the Cree language, so we were finally able to speak our language. I stayed there for 10 years... I met my husband very young. He was my boyfriend at the time. At 14 I had my daughter and at 16 I was married. Nobody knew about my pregnancy, even my mother didn't know. I went back to my mother's in April (for the Easter holidays). I had left her in August, so we were more than seven months without seeing each other. On the station platform, the day I left for boarding school, I told him the news crying, because I had no desire to go back. She consoled me and told me that she had suspected it, because she had seen my little belly. However, I found that my belly was tiny considering my young age.

At boarding school, I was told about abortion, but I didn't know what it was. When they explained to me that abortion is going to the hospital pregnant and leaving without a baby, I was really scared of what it was. They told me they could help me, if ever I was pregnant, and when they asked me the question, I lied to them because it was not at all what I wanted.

When I think back, I was really young and didn't know anything about sexuality, but I don't regret having had it so young at all. I only wanted a child, because it hurt too much (childbirth)! I finished my secondary 5 in adult class, I don't remember when...

My favorite activities are going fishing and walleye with my husband and going in the woods to Ski-Doo (snowmobile).

My favorite music is Have you ever seen the rain by CCR (Creedence Clearwater Revival). CCR is my favorite music group. I also like Burning love by Elvis Presley.

My favorite color is purple.

My favorite dish is caesar salad with grilled chicken and my favorite desserts are carrot cake and sugar pie.

I really like perfumes like Chanel.