Amongst God's Own: The Enduring Legacy of St. Mary's Mission

For over a hundred years, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate operated St. Mary’s Mission, a residential school just outside of Mission, BC. Now for the first time, the stories of former students are told in Amongst God’s Own . Award-winning author Terry Glavin has woven the accounts of 35 native elders into a bold, uncompromising narrative of life at St. Mary’s. Starting with the Oblates’ arrival and their establishment of the Mission on the Fraser River, Glavin tracks the chronology of St. Mary’s through the 20th century, revealing the Order’s religious, political and social underpinnings. Native voices recount the realities of day-to-day life at the school. Moving beyond the prevalent discourse of oppression and victimhood, the result is a groundbreaking portrait of this place and time that illuminates 200 years of native-white interaction in BC. Enhancing the stories are over 60 images culled from personal and archival collections. Amongst God’s Own is a unique record of peoples at a crossroads, caught in a clash between government and religious authority whose consequences reverberate to this day.