Item N-2001-016: CN-30A - Marie Anne McDonald, Fort Smith #1-26 Fort Smith - March 17, 1992

• Sound recording

1 audio cassette (47 min.)

This item is the first part of a four-part interview of Marie Anne McDonald (born October 21, 1915) at Fort Smith, recorded on March 17, 1992 by Sister Agnes Sutherland as part of the 1992 Metis Heritage Project. The interview is in English. The original source item is side A of a 90 minute audio cassette. The interview also includes items CN-30B, CN-31A, and CN-31B. Marie tells portions of the story of her life and background interspersed with more general responses to the interviewer's questions of what life used to be like. Marie shares that her ancestors were from Winnipegosis and she and her parents, Pierre Tourangeau and Mary Rose Mercredi were from Fort Chipewyan. When her mother became ill when she was about 5 years old, she was taken by her father to live at the Convent and remained there until she was about 9. Marie's father remarried and she lived with him and her step-mother until her marriage as a teenager to ___ Daniel. They lived with her in-laws at first. Marriage was hard for Marie and after 12 years and 6 children, she and her husband broke up. She supported herself and her family by sewing. Additional topics covered include summer fish camp at Quatre Fourches, winter trap lines, shelters, special places, family relationships, employment, duties of men and women, family history, sewing (clothing, materials, prices), relationships between groups of people, marriage and family life, pregnancy and childbirth, adoption, parental expectations for children, punishments, and education (formal and by observation).