Supporting learners' public engagement with traumatic histories of mass human violence can develop and sustain reparative relations across and between strained social collectives. In this article I theorize the intrapersonal and inter-political dynamics of psychical and social reparation through a classroom case of reparative learning. I analyze the emotional responses of beginning teachers engaging with traumatic Aboriginal history as depicted in Robert Arthur Alexie's novel "Porcupines and China Dolls". My analysis of students' trouble with the novel offers insight into the psychical production of reparative curriculum as it is raggedly pieced together in the learner's capacity to feel for the unimaginable lives and worlds of others. (Contains 4 notes.)