Teaching an entire generation that their way of life was an abomination, as Ed Metatawabin was taught in the Canadian residential school system, allowed indigenous peoples to be marginalized by the rest of Canadian society; thus creating a clear imbalance of power between cultures so that First Nations lacked the support they needed to progress as a community.…
Looking at the effects of Canada’s colonial past, the chapter of Monchalin’s textbook The Impact of Assimilation discusses the history of residential schools and the impact that they have had on Canada’s Indigenous community. The purpose of these horrendous and unethical establishments was to eradicate the culture, traditions, and language of Indigenous peoples. This was done by removing Indigenous children from their homes, denying them communication with their families while forcing them to adopt the beliefs of Christianity. Beginning in 1920, it became compulsory that all Indigenous children from the age of seven to fifteen must attend school however; this did not necessarily mean that they were required to attend a residential school. Though…
Government has been the number one supporter of assimilation of all time in 1985 the residential schools were opened these schools had first nation youth forced to attend they were taught that they were no good and there heritage was no good and they should be like how they wanted them to be. Lena often felt the pressures that the Government has emplaced upon her living in the reservations where dogs ran freely in the roads the houses were all the…
These schools lasted from the 1880 up to the end of the 20th century with its primary objective of educating aboriginal children and take the Indian out of the child. This strategy was very damaging as children were separated from their families for extended periods and were prohibited from all cultural aspects of their aboriginal heritage. Children were severely punished for wrong doings and were subjected physical, psychological and sexual abuse. Residential schools damaged aboriginal culture and disrupted families all across Canada. The damaging effect has carried on for several generations and still exists in modern Canadian society. Since the young aboriginals were taken away at a young age, they did not have the nurturing from their families and lacked knowledge and skill on how to raise their own families. The environment of not knowing how to raise a family is very cyclical and continues to have devastating effects in today’s aboriginal communities. The implementation of residential schools was very devastating and was a form of cultural genocide (Hanson, 2011).The Canadian Government has tried resolving the issue by paying a 1.9 billion compensation package to the thousand of aboriginals affect by the Residential School system. Although the compensation budget and a formal apology by the prime minister is a kind gesture for Canada’s realization for the harm its…
The history of the Métis and Residential Schools is not new. For a century, the mutual lives of the Métis children were controlled by the missionaries and the Catholic Church, and became wrapped up in Federal Government policies. The Metis Residential School experience was similar to the Aboriginal one; that of social exclusion and mental and physical abuse. The procedures that were created for the Métis in Residential Schools harshly exposed how bureaucrats felt about the social order of the Métis’ station in the New Canada. The Residential Schools took part in creating a lower class structure for the Métis, which separated them even further from their First…
The residential schools truly killed the Indian within the Aboriginals, which was their primary objective after establishment.The reserves destroyed the customs of Aboriginals through its compact living conditions; and the lack of education or stress caused the Aboriginals to take atrocious actions. Furthermore, suicide rates would not be so high if the Aboriginals were not assimilated and enforced to follow the english way of…
A vast majority of modern societies around the world view Canada as an accepting nation that embraces a variety of different people, and hosts many diverse cultures. For instance, in the 1920’s not all Canadians were free from discrimination, and although most people were embracing this time of prosperity with new inventions and exciting lifestyles, others, such as the Indigenous peoples of Canada, were struggling to avoid the the overbearing push of extreme cultural discrimination. The residential schooling system isolated children from their culture, causing great humiliation and pain. For example, the policy of assimilation was introduced to merge young Indigenous children into the Euro-Canadian culture. The residential schooling system…
In this article Bombay et.al. writes about the effects of residential schools. Many Native children were forced to attend Indian Residential School (IRS) and suffered trauma, neglect, abuse, and much more. Bombay also looks at the intergenerational patterns and effects.…
Who are the people that went to residential schools, where are they, and their families today? Have you ever heard someone talk about residential schools like it was an everyday conversation? Residential schools have become so camouflaged into the back of people’s minds. People tend to forget that these schools took place and that they are real life events that can have an effect on everyone around them. These schools have left such an imprint on Canada as a whole, that people should be more aware about the outcomes and more familiar with the history of these schools. The intergenerational effects of residential schools in today’s society has taken such a toll on Canada and especially on aboriginal people. Residential schools, was Canada’s policy of a genocide.(apa format) A genocide which has created such a conflict, nobody had ever anticipated that this would be the outcome. I want to be able to show whomever is reading this paper, the effects and the outcomes of what residential schools have on Canada and on aboriginal people. I will be interviewing Joni Desnomie who attended the Whitecap Residential School located in Lebret, Saskatchewan.…
The harsh reality of the events occurring to native children gone missing from residential schools has been brought to light. Records concur that over 150,000 children have been taken from their parents, sent to residential schools and many never returned. The leading cause of these tragic deaths was disease, mainly tuberculosis and the Spanish flu epidemic. The children faced these diseases every day in residential schools. Furthermore, there were many deaths that were influenced directly by the schools themselves. Students would sometimes be fed rotten food, or be unquestionably malnourished. The students could even be used in experiments…
Davison, J. (2010). A history of residential schools in Canada. Retrieved September 25, 2012 from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2008/05/16/f-faqs-residential-schools.html…
The residential school era in Canada started after in 1879, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald commissioned Nicholas Flood Davin to report on Indian industrial training schools established in the U.S. His report recommended the establishment of Indian Residential schools similar to those based on the “Carlisle model”. Davin was convinced that day schools were not sufficient enough in assimilating Indian people to Canadian society, and therefore he strongly advocated the establishment of off-reserve boarding schools like Carlisle (Chansonneuve 33). For this reason, the boarding school systems of the U.S. and Canada began to resemble each other in many respects. By 1900, there were 61 residential schools in operation in Canada. Over a century, approximately 150,000 aboriginal students attended 130 residential schools in the country (Dawson 82). Therefore, the number of Native children attending residential schools in Canada largely…
However Canada tries to hide a dirty little secret, and that happens to be residential school. Residential schools came to into effect in the early 1870s and the last one was not close until 1996.("The Residential School System."). As mentioned earlier, the charter was no created until 1982, this means Canadians were breaking the first section of the charter, which are the fundamental freedoms ("Rights and Freedoms in Canada."). Residential schools were designed to "kill the Indian in the child"("The Residential School System."). Contrary to what the public believed back in the 1870s, these schools were not always the best for the children, they were taking from their families and force to follow a religion and language that was not their own.("The Residential School System.") Canadian aboriginals were subjected to all kinds of abuse while attending these schools. ("The Residential School System.") Emotional, Psychological, physical and most importantly sexual abuse were found in almost every school.("The Residential School System.") Many Canadians are under the notion that residential schools were designed to teach aboriginal children about catholic religion, this is not the truth.The truth is that residential schools were also underfunded compared to the white schools.("The Residential School System.") and although the children were taught Christianity, the children were groomed to became house maids or farmers.("The Residential School System.") The majority of children who were sent away at the age of 18 only had a fifth-grade education. ("The Residential School System.")this type of Trauma had to be endured by many generations of Canadian aboriginals. The so call " free" education came with a deadly price.In 1907, medical inspector P.H. Bryce reported that 24 percent aboriginal children were dying in residential homes, this number did not counter in the number of death of children…
“It is clear that the schools have been, arguably, the most damaging of the many elements of Canada’s colonization of this land’s original peoples and, as their consequences still affect the lives of Aboriginal people today, they remain so.”—John S. Milloy, A National Crime…
The residential schools were established in 1800, created by the Canadian Council of indigenous Agreements…