Children's book author discovered her birth family through a Citizen photo

Wendy (Robertson) Proverbs is a children’s book author who took inspiration for her book from her birth family she ultimately discovered thanks to a picture published in The Citizen.

Proverbs was adopted by the Robertson family and grew up in Prince George, not knowing her birth family until later in life.

“I am Indigenous from my birth mother and Swiss from my birth father but I didn’t know any of this until I was in my 20s when I actually met a sibling, thanks to The Prince George Citizen,” Proverbs said.

“My birth sister was Corina Luthi,” Proverbs said.

There was a picture in The Citizen on October 4, 1985 taken by photographer Dave Milne of Luthi as she was crowned Miss Oktoberfest.

“The neighbour of my adoptive mother saw the picture in the paper and said to my mother ‘this girl looks very much like Wendy, I think you need to investigate this’ so we did and so because of The Citizen I ended up meeting her and from that meeting I eventually found out who I was.”

Back then records of adoption were sealed.

“So I had no idea of my biological background so kudos to The Citizen,” Proverbs said.

Proverbs grew up in Prince George enjoying everything it had to offer.

Proverbs, who hasn’t lived in Prince George for 48 years, lived on Patricia Boulevard in the early part of her childhood and then her family moved to a new subdivision near Spruceland Elementary when she was older.

Proverbs fondly recalled skating in the old coliseum, sledding, skiing, swimming in the outdoor pool on Wainwright Street, celebrating events at South Fort George Park, now Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park.

“I remember snow golfing, skiing on the cutbanks, A&W root beer, the Dog 'N Suds drive-in, Woodwards department store, Bowie’s Fashions, Northern Hardware, The Outrigger restaurant, Vienna Schnitzel restaurant, May Day parades, matinees at the Princess Theatre, summer at local lakes, and the mournful sounds of locomotive horns as they passed through town,” Proverbs said.

Because there wasn’t a university here at that time, Proverbs said she moved to further her education.

“So I headed south to attend university and ended up staying to work and raise my family in Victoria,” Proverbs explained.

Proverbs had a career in finance in her early years but found it wasn’t very satisfying work.

In her 40s she decided to return to school and attended the University of Victoria to earn her BA and Masters in anthropology and Indigenous studies.

During her time at the University of Victoria she was inspired to write an essay about her birth mother and aunt. Proverbs had discovered that as young children the sisters had to journey from their remote village of Lower Post - Daylu, located at the BC Yukon border to Lejac Residential School. Just like so many other Indigenous children, the sisters were taken from their families at a young age to attend residential school, where they endured years of isolation and abuse.

A Catholic priest took the children on the 1,600-kilometre journey by riverboat, mail truck, paddlewheeler, steamship, and train.

“This was back in the late 1920s, probably in 1928, the records are a bit iffy,” Proverbs said.

She had researched church and residential school records to gather what information she could.

Once Proverbs graduated from university, she continued to develop the story.

“Initially it was a family record but as I wrote it friends and family said it was important not just for us but for other people to understand a little bit more about residential school and how it affected so many people.”

After Proverbs wrote the book she submitted it to Heritage House publishing company and it was accepted and published.

Geared for youth, Proverbs’ book called Aggie and Mudgy: The Journey of Two Kaska Dena Children won the 2022 Jeanne Clarke Award and the City of Victoria Children’s Book Prize.

“So that was very rewarding and through that recognition I was asked to speak at elementary schools and I would just talk about the experience of my birth mother and aunt and it’s been quite rewarding for me to do that because I learn a lot going into the schools and meeting the young people and sharing the story,” Proverbs said.

“Earlier this year I was invited to speak at Nusdeh Yoh Elementary School in Prince George. From my conversation with the students, they told me they were intrigued that I was from their hometown. Nusdeh Yoh means House of the Future and I’m confident that future alumni from schools such as Nusdeh Yoh will be the foundation to move our society forward in a good way.”

Proverbs most recently returned to her hometown to attend her 50^th Prince George Senior Secondary School reunion earlier this month.

“The team that organized the reunion did a fantastic job and it was held at the Coast Hotel,” Proverbs said.

“It’s a little nerve-racking walking into a place after not seeing people for so many years. I did attend the 10^th reunion and honestly coming to this reunion I had a very hard time recognizing people and so did others. We always had to look at our name tags because people change. Fifty years is a long time. A very long time. I found some alumni I was really happy to see and some, unfortunately, were not there that I wanted to see but that’s just the way it goes and I did run into an old neighbour that I knew in Grade 2, so you just never know who you’ll run into if you don’t take the chance and show up because you’re going to miss these little moments."

Proverbs said she was really impressed with the memorial tribute room.

“It was a little room set off to the side and it featured all the alumni that had passed,” Proverbs said.

“They also highlighted the eight young men who were lost on the Willow River the year before we graduated but we knew a lot of those kids and it affected us and we talked about that at the reunion. It was really nice they were honoured along with the other 75 alumni that had passed.”

People were really thrilled to be back for the reunion, she added.

“Some people traveled a great distance to attend,” Proverbs said about the 130 or so alumni who were at the event.

“There was one who came from Tasmania and another from Hong Kong. People really made an effort to reconnect. So many people were thrilled to be back in Prince George and it was all about sharing those memories.”