Truth

Coming in Spring 2027

Foreword by Lorraine Daniels, Executive Director of the National Indigenous Residential School Museum of Canada

How would Canada’s history of residential school injustice come to life if you could sit with a Survivor and hear their personal story? How could your mind be opened? 

Truth: Stories of Residential School Survivors from Long Plain First Nation offers this intimacy. These first-person accounts from twelve residential school Survivors detail not only the experiences of residential school, but what life was like before, and navigating the complex life after. Five additional testimonies from 2002 of deceased Survivors (related to book participants) offer a multi-generational perspective.

The stories in this book vividly illustrate abuse, community fracture, family breakdown, cultural obliteration, and intergenerational trauma, but also the inspiring strength of the human spirit that enables healing, hope and even forgiveness.

Advance Praise for Truth

“It was an honour to be a little part of it [as an early reader].”
—Beatrice Mosionier, author of In Search of April Raintree

“What Anne Mahon has done is something beautiful, powerful and essential. The Survivors’ voices come through loud and clear, each one so distinctive.”
—Shelagh Rogers, OC Honorary Witness for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Chancellor of Queen’s University

“Among the dolls, the beadwork, the bitter sweetgrass, love, laughter and tears, there is a light. A gift that has value worth more than the things we treasure most. Truth: Stories of Residential School Survivors from Long Plain First Nation shares truths that give readers a chance to participate in what reconciliation can be. Simply put, unveiling love, empathy, compassion and kindness form the basis of reconciliation. Read, search your instincts, and find your inner light. The key will not only open this treasure chest, but will also open the key to paradise. Thank you Anne Mahon.” —Tom Jackson, award-winning actor, musician, and activist

“While this book explores difficult and painful truths, it also offers hope. It reflects the remarkable strength and courage of Survivors and reminds us of the importance of listening to them, learning from their experiences, and carrying their teachings forward. Above all, it is a powerful reminder that we must never forget, and that the work of remembrance, truth, and reconciliation belongs to each of us.” —Stephanie Scott, Executive Director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and the Associate Vice President (Indigenous) Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba

“Anne Mahon’s new book of stories, told to her by residential school survivors from Long Plain First Nation, aims at the heart and really hits the mark.  These memoirs are sometimes grim, sometimes shocking, and sometimes even funny.  But most of all, the narratives we read in these pages are intimate revelations of childhood.  The survivors who tell them really have something to say.  Mahon’s book is entitled Truth.  I could not imagine a better title.” —David Carpenter,  author of The Education of Augie Merasty