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

For over 100 years, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate operated St. Mary’s Mission, a residential school near Mission, BC. Now the stories of its former students are told for the first time. In Amongst God’s Own, acclaimed writer Terry Glavin has woven the accounts of 35 native elders into a bold, uncompromising narrative of life at St. Mary’s.

Sitting 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 ground–breaking portrait of this place and time that illuminates 200 years of Native–white interaction in BC.

Enhancing the stories are 60 photos culled from personal and archival collections. Amongst God’s Own is a unique record of a people at a crossroads, caught in a clash between government and religious authority whose consequences reverberate to this day.