Canadian Indian Residential School Case Study

Introduction

For years, the Aboriginal people have faced discrimination in Canada. They are often perceived as an inferior “race” due to their native traditions being fairly different from the typical white Canadian traditions. In the 19th century, the Canadian government mandated residential schools under the federal law- it was illegal for children to attend any other schools. More than 100,000 First Nations children, in Canada were separated from their families and were forced to attend residential schools all across Canada. This was an attempt from the Canadian government to assimilate the Native into “English- speaking, Christian-Canadians” (The Residential School System, 2009) and to civilize the younger native population to keep them

The school system was than defined as a wide spread system, set up by the Canadian government and directed by churches for fulfilling their delusional responsibility of “educating and caring for Aboriginal people in Canada” (A History of Residential Schools in Canada, 2014). The nominal objective of these two organizations was to “kill the Indian in the child” and to assimilate them into the mainstream Canadian society, so their native traditions would completely abolish in the next few generations.

The motive behind the residential school system was the European settlers that stepped into Canada following the Aboriginals. The European settlers came into Canada with the assumption that there own society “[is] the pinnacle of human achievement” (The Residential School System, 2009). The socio-cultural differences between the Aboriginals and themselves were generated into “proof” that the First Nation people are savages and ignorant- and in need of guidance. The settlers felt that it is essential to “civilize” the Aboriginals, therefore the federal government decided to take responsibility by catching the children at a young age and educating them to become courteous, Canadian-Christian human being – “If anything is to be done with the Indian, we must catch [them] very young. The children must be kept constantly within the circle of civilized conditions” (Daven, 1879.

As part of the strategy, authorities began to take children far from their homes in the attempt to alienate them from their families and communities. The school system did not let the pupils practice or acknowledge their Aboriginal culture or heritage, and neither were they able to speak in their own language. The sole purpose of residential schools was to destroy every single aspect of the Aboriginal culture and to completely undermine it, for that reason that their culture was considered inferior to the