Mary (Quaw) John Sr. CM (1913 - 2004)

Born 15 Jun 1913 in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada

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Biography

Mary (Quaw) John Sr. CM was a Canadian First Peoples and member of the Dakelh Nation.

Mary (Quaw) John Sr. CM is/was a significant British Columbian.

Mary was born in 1913. She is the daughter of Anzell Quaw.

In her memoir, Stoney Creek Woman, Mary writes she was born when her mother was only 13 years old. She says it was common knowledge in the community that her father was an Englishman named Charlie Pinker who sexually assaulted her mother. But he never acknowledged Mary’s paternity.

She grew up in Saik'uz (Stoney Creek) village, raised by her mother and her stepfather Johnny Paul. She was a member of the Tachek clan.

At the age of eight she was sent to the residential school in Fort St James. The next year she moved to the newly established Lejac Residential School, which she attended until she was fourteen years old. At the age of sixteen she married Lazare John^[1], with whom she had twelve children.

Activism

In 1942 she helped found and became the first President of the local chapter of the British Columbia Homemakers' Association. The Department of Indian Affairs intended the group to teach homemaking skills to Aboriginal women, but Mary help it become a vehicle for political action. In the 1950’s, alongside Bridget Moran she founded the Welfare Committee, which worked to place aboriginal children in aboriginal foster homes in or near their own community.

In 1980 along with her daughter Helen, and elders Celina John and Veronica George, she established the Stoney Creek Elders' Society, which built the Potlatch House and the associated campground as economic development initiatives. Still more important, the Elders' Society provided the impetus for social change and political action.

In the 1980s, she began her liaison work with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. She invited the staff to her fishing camp for a barbecue every summer. She eventually served on the Aboriginal Advisory Committee to the Commanding Officer of RCMP "E" Division, a province-wide body, of which she was a founding member.

Language Preservation

Mary was very concerned with the preservation of her culture and language, of which she was a fluent speaker. In the 1970s she taught Carrier language and culture at St. Joseph's School, the Catholic school in Vanderhoof, British Columbia, as well as several conversational Carrier courses for adults; she was one of the founders of the Yinka Dene Language Institute of which she is the Permanent Honorary Chair; and she was one of the principal contributors to the Saik'uz Children's Dictionary and other teaching materials. From 1992 until her death she worked with linguist Bill Poser to document the Carrier language.

In January, 2008 the Vanderhoof Public Library opened the Mary John Collection, a collection of 800 books on First Nations topics created in her honor.^[2]

She passed away in 2004.

Sources

1. ↑ "British Columbia Marriage Registrations, 1859-1932; 1937-1938," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JD8H-3YT : 6 April 2020), Peter Lezare and Mary Paul, 11 Jun 1929; citing Stoney Creek, British Columbia, Canada, British Columbia Archives film number B13890-13897, Vital Statistics Agency, Victoria; FHL microfilm 2,114,099.
2. ↑ The Mary John Collection, published by the Vanderhoof Public Library.

See also:

• Stoney Creek Woman published by Bridget Moran and Mary John. Reprinted by Google Books.
• Wikipedia: Mary John Sr.
• Wikidata: Item Q6779946, en:Wikipedia