Dad, I Miss You

A story about the experiences of the residential school system, told from one family’s experience, Dad, I Miss You by Nadia Simmurtok and Simji Park is a story about pain, loss, and reconnection.

Told in a conversational format, a father and son speak not physically but through their thoughts as the son is taken for another school year to residential school from his Inuit community. Their fears and sadness are shared with the reader to gain another perspective on the experiences of the residential school system.

Nadia Simmurtok shares her family’s residential school separation journey through this incredibly powerful narrative. Heartbreaking and sad, revealing the feelings of the students as well as their families as they are forced away from their communities. Dad, I Miss You is a unique story when thinking about the stories that parents and educators will share with children regarding the residential school system and it’s important that we are sharing these different experiences and ensuring that we are not lumping all Indigenous Peoples into a monolithic experience. Each community experienced residential school differently and the experience of people in the Prairies would have been different to those in the North. This is the first residential school story I have read from an Inuit experience and it is quite different from the other stories by First Nations authors. What struck me about this story in particular was the hope at the end of the story. The father is hopeful that his son will relearn the language and teachings of their community to then be able to share that with his children.

Dad, I Miss You is a story that many adults may want to shelter their readers from. It’s sad and scary but I would encourage all adults to not be afraid of sharing sad or scary things in an age appropriate way. Inhabit Media has an incredible Education Resource for this book to guide adults in sharing the story with young readers. If the children taken away to residential school were old enough to be taken, then our children are old enough to understand the impact these schools have had on generations of Indigenous people.

The illustrations by Simji Park set the tone for the story. The muted, earth toned colour palette not only transports readers to the North but also to residential school and the dark and cloudy feelings that are enveloping both the child and the father in the story.