Brown Tom’s Schooldays Book Launch—Brantford

•  November 22, 2024
•  7:00pm EST
•  Woodland Cultural Centre, 184 Mohawk St., Brantford, Ontario, N3S 2X2.   Check here for event source.    

Join Mary Jane Logan McCallum at the Woodland Cultural Centre launch of Brown Tom’s Schooldays by Enos Montour. Mary Jane will be joined by Enos’s granddaughters Mary I. Anderson and Margaret McKenzie as well as the book’s original editor Elizabeth Graham. Refreshments and book signing will follow the discussion.

Enos Montour’s Brown Tom’s Schooldays, self-published in 1985, tells the story of a young boy’s life at residential school. Drawn from Montour’s first-hand experiences at Mount Elgin Indian Residential School between 1910 and 1915, the book is an ironic play on “the school novel,” namely 1857’s Tom Brown’s Schooldays by Thomas Hughes. An accomplished literary text, this critical edition offers important insight into Canadian residential school histories.

This event will be hosted in person at the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford, Ontario.  

Aother beautiful book about a local story

Here is Mary Jane talking about the book on YouTube.  

Mary Jane has a local family connection to Norma LOGAN Richter from Middlemiss – and cousin to Norma’s children and our friends Meg Tucker, Reta Hart, Frank Richter, Paul, Debbie, and Pam.  

Books available for sale at the Glencoe & District Historical Society or from the bookseller. University of Manitoba: https://uofmpress.ca/books/brown-toms-schooldays  

Brown Tom’s Schooldays – beautiful 2nd edition

The Glencoe & District Historical Society applauds the release of the second edition of this important book – Enos Montour’s Brown Tom’s Schooldays, self-published in 1985.  Rev. Montour tells the story of a young boy’s life at residential school.  Drawn from Montour’s first-hand experiences of Mount Elgin Indian Residential School between 1910 and 1915, the book is an ironic play on ‘the school novel,” namely 1857’s Tom Brown Schooldays by Thomas Hughes.

Hot off the press, Brown Tom’s Schooldays is an accomplished literary text and uncommon chronicle of federal Indian schooling in the early twentieth century.  The story positions Brown Tom and his schoomates as citizens of three worlds: the reserve, the “white man’s world,” and the school in between.  It follows Tom leaving his family home, making friends, witnessing sickness and death, and enduring constant hunger.  

Mary Jane Logan McCallum’s other recent book  Nii NDahlohke – ‘I Work” , tells the story of student life at Mount Elgin Industrial School between  1890 and 1915. 

From Mary Jane: “I research modern Indigenous histories, particularly in southern Manitoba and Ontario, focusing on the areas of education, health, and labour.  I also teach, supervise, and mentor post-secondary students who study in these fields. I am a founding member of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association and Shekon Neechie, a website that promotes Indigenous history by Indigenous people. My most recent book deals with student labour at Mount Elgin Residential School. I’m currently working on several projects including”:

• Indigenous Histories of Tuberculosis In Manitoba, 1930-1970. Project website: https://indigenoustbhistory.ca
• Reprint of Enos Montour’s Brown Tom’s School Days (1985), a student memoir of Mount Elgin Industrial School
• Case studies on Indigenization, Equity and History Departments in Canadian Universities
• Wahbunahkee: Chief Scobie Logan and Local, National and International Expressions of Lunaape Rights and Responsibilities, 1860-1930
• The Indigenous Course Requirement Collection, an archive of the ICR at the University of Winnipeg Archives

University of Manitoba: https://uofmpress.ca/books/brown-toms-schooldays  

November 9, 2024: launch of Brown Tom’s School Days Virtual from Winnipeg, Manitoba.  

https://www.youtube.com/live/qsNucIPVSNs?si=IkA9V2Xfz1QM-jf_&t=462