s a young girl growing up in northern
Ontario, Kara Fry always knew she wanted
to be a teacher. What she didn’t know was
that her chosen profession would take her halfway around
the world and back, on a roller-coaster journey of growth
and self-discovery.
From dealing with intergenerational trauma at one of
Canada’s most notorious residential schools to learning Thai
massage in Southeast Asia, Waldorf teaching methods in
New Zealand and supervisory roles at both an old-
fashioned one-room schoolhouse and a
brand-new “conglomerate” school back in
Ontario, Kara has relished experiencing
new situations and different cultures.
When given a choice, she invariably opts
for the road less travelled.
“That’s my thing, I guess,” laughed the
43-year-old new mom one morning this
spring, sitting at the kitchen table of her
small but cozy home in a quiet Kingscourt
cul-de-sac. In her arms, she cradled baby Sadie, whose large,
deep blue eyes exactly mirror her mother’s. “I love
challenges, have a passion for learning and thrive on the
unexpected,” Kara acknowledged. “Those qualities have
brought me to some really interesting places.”
Her current position as a student parent support worker
with Pathways to Education Kingston, combined with part-
time employment as a registered massage therapist, has
been the longest lasting of a variety of career choices. She
attributes this to a new-found sense of balance — as well as
to the changing priorities of parenthood.
“Coming to Kingston ten years ago marked a real turning
point in my life, and now I feel I’ve finally put down roots,”
she says. “But looking back on how I got here, I wouldn’t
change a thing.”
Kara was born in Powassan, a tiny whistle-stop town 20
kilometres from North Bay. All of her extended family still
live in northern Ontario, and she keeps a trailer on her
grandparents’ lakeside property for visits home each
summer.
After receiving a B.A. from Laurentian University in
Sudbury, Kara returned to North Bay for a teaching degree

from Nipissing University in 1999. By then, she had firmly

resolved not to work in the traditional education system.

Instead, she accepted a position at Fort Albany First Nation,

a remote “fly-in” community near the western shore of

James Bay.

More than a decade later, Fort Albany would become

synonymous with the horrors of residential school abuse

when documents from an OPP investigation were released

to Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. St.

Anne’s, the school where Kara was posted, had been the site

of some of the most serious sexual and

physical abuse of Indigenous children

reported to the commission.

“I really had no idea what I was

getting myself into then,” Kara recalls.

“Repercussions from past abuse plus the

stress from their current living conditions

created emotional challenges for my

students — and for me as a new teacher.

Many nights I went home crying as a

result of what my students had shared with me.”

Fortunately for Kara, she soon befriended former band

chief Edmund Metatawabin, a residential schools survivor

whose memoir, Up Ghost River: A Chief’s Journey Through the

Turbulent Waters of Native History, was shortlisted for the

Governor General’s Award for English-language non-fiction

in 2014. Edmund’s wife, Joan, also taught at St. Anne’s, and

their daughter was in Kara’s class.

“Edmund was a big influence on the path I followed later

in life,” says Kara. “His wisdom and leadership — becoming

a voice for other Indigenous people who had experienced

trauma similar to his — were inspirational. I’m proud to

count him as a friend and was thrilled when he received the

Order of Canada this past year.”

Spending time with the Metatawabins and learning

about Cree traditions was a highlight of Kara’s time at Fort

Albany. But there were low points too. One of those

occurred when a fire was set at St. Anne’s and it burned to

the ground. A new school was built in its place, however,

which Kara describes as a fresh beginning for the

community. “Teaching in the original St. Anne’s school had

been challenging for everyone,” she says.

Kara

Fry

BYNANCY DORRANCE WITH PHOTOGRAPHY BY KRISTEN RITCHIE

36 JULY 17, 2019

A

“

Interacting with

children, families and

teachers from the north

end helped integrate

me into Kingston