In 1953, I went to work at the Fort Resolution convent. I was in my early teens, and I didn’t think much of going to school, so my mother sent me to work there. She said that if I wasn’t going to go to school, I had to work.

I worked from seven in the morning to seven in the evening every day. The pay was fifty cents a day, and only at the end of each month, I got paid fifteen dollars. With that money, I got to buy myself an outfit which cost me seven dollars. The outfit included a pair of shoes, pants, top and a hat to match. Hats were in style then.

I worked there for about three years. After the first year, I got paid three hundred and fifty dollars. It was a lot of money for us back then. My co-worker and I thought that they had made a mistake in our pay and promised not to tell anyone. We thought we had a big secret, but we soon found out that it was the new wage.

We got to eat all our meals there, so we didn’t have to go home for our meals. We had good meals there, and every Friday we had fish. We didn’t have to pay for our meals, so that was good.