Customer Reviews

Flowers on My Grave: How an Ojibwa Boy's Death Helped Break the Silence on Child Abuse

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This book thoroughly and thoughtfully examined the complexities of providing child welfare services in First Nations communities. The story of Lester's suicide was heartbreaking but the strength of the people who wanted to help was inspiring. This would be an excellent text for use in Native social work programs to highlight the many challenges on reserve social workers face.

Flowers on My Grave was published well over ten years ago; however, I only found it to be in my possession a few short months ago. When I located it on my husband's book shelf, I was eager to read the content of this well-written, non-fiction book. Ruth Teichroeb is a fellow Canadian who accepted the responsibility of writing a book about the tragic death of a young Ojibwa boy by the name of Lester Desjarlais. Unfortunately, Lester Desjarlais fell through the cracks of the aboriginal child welfare system and eventually committed suicide.

An inquest that was scheduled to take place over a short period of time, stretched into months as more and more facts were revealed about the sexual abuse and family suffering that was taking place on the Sandy Bay reserve in Manitoba. There was a code of silence that the people of the reserve were reluctant to break but with perseverance and persistence, Teichroeb managed to break through and discover the heart wrenching truth about the lives of those being abused. She also discovered the fear and backlash that influenced the code of silence adopted by the abused.

Lester Desjarlis' story grabbed me by the heartstrings. I live in Manitoba and the sad plight of our oldest ancestors has always been of great interest and sadness to me. Reading this true story reminded me of the courage of others who find the strength to speak out but it also makes me realize that so little has actually changed over the last fourteen years. Many of our First Nations people live in sub-standard housing with unsafe water supplies and very few amenities. Flood waters have recently brought a reserve's people to live in the city of Winnipeg and it has been difficult for them to fit in. Many live in hotels in the core area and continue to fall through the cracks. Their children have not been integrated into the public school system as the powers that be grapple to find makeshift classrooms so the young children can attend school. According to The Edmonton Journal, Flowers on My Grave is a "powerful, heartbreaking and impressively researched examination of the epidemic extending far beyond any single community". I couldn't agree more. Every time I drive through the core area of my city, I am faced with the tragedy of our First Nations awkward place in our supposedly civilized society. It is not a pretty sight and not one with a solution near at hand.

So many of the Canadian reserves suffer the same problems.
Only if all the reserves could open up and deal with the abuse problem.