Residential schools all across Canada have left its students with the difficult task of regaining a normal life after various abuses. This legacy of residential school system is still affecting people today. In the books Kiss of the Fur Queen by Tomson Highway and Creative Escape 2013 by various inmates, tell stories of attending a residential school and then dealing with the legacy of the residential school system by finding different ways to overcome the effects of the residential school system. One effects of the legacy of the residential school system is isolation. Another effect of the legacy of the residential school system is guilt. Lastly the loss of identity is an effect of the residential school system legacy. The legacy of residential schools through the works of Kiss of the Fur Queen and Creative Escape 2013 show that the legacy of residential schools has caused the survivors to feel isolated from family and community leading to various consequences, the guilt that the characters are taught in the residential schools is carried with the characters after they leave the schools, and the loss of identity the students are left with after leaving the school and going into the cities. These texts not only show that there is a legacy of the residential school system and that the characters face it but that the characters in the texts also find strategies to overcome this legacy through the use of art, traditional teachings and religion. One of the effects of the legacy of the residential school system is isolation and it plays a big role in both Creative Escape 2013 and Kiss of the Fur Queen. The incarcerated people face isolation from all families, communities and friends while in jail. In Creative Escape one poem discusses... ... middle of paper ... ...ese texts show the effects of the residential school system and how the people in the texts overcome the legacy. The effects of isolation in Kiss of the fur Queen when the characters go to the city and in the prison writings in Creative Escape. The effects of the guilt taught to the residential school survivors and carried with them throughout their lives shows in these texts. Lastly the loss of identity in the men’s writing in Creative Escape and the loss of identity that Gabriel and Jeremiah end up with after going to the residential school and living in the city. As these effects of the residential school affect the people in the texts, the people in the texts have ways to combat the legacy of the residential school system. They use art, traditional teachings, and region to overcome the legacy. They find themselves and begin living to the best of their ability.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the government began abolishing the compulsory residential school education among Aboriginal people. The government believed that Aboriginal children could receive a better education if they were integrated into the public school system (Hanson). However, residential schools were later deemed inappropriate because not only were the children taken away from their culture, their families and their people, but the majority of students were abus...
Like Chanie, Saul also gets a chance to escape the traumatic sufferings at the residential schools. As he gets adopted by Fred Kelly, on the basis of his magnificent and impressive hockey skills. Therefore, the dreadful horrors of the residential schools played an important role in shaping the future lives of not just Saul and Chanie but all the other Aboriginal children who attended the
Residential schools undoubtedly created detrimental inter-generational consequences. The dark legacy of residential schools has had enduring impact, reaching into each new generation, and has led to countless problems within Aboriginal families including: chemical dependence, a cycle of abuse in families, dysfunctional families, crime and incarceration, depression, grief, suicide, and cultural identity issues (McFarlan, 2000, p. 13). Therefore, the inter-generational consequence...
Residential schools were institutions funded by the government for young indigenous peoples. The idea was to kill the Indian in the children, and to create Westernized youth. Many children revolted the idea, while others accepted it. Crucial development occurs in a child's mind between the ages of five and eight. In the novel Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden, a story is told of three Cree people who have experienced Residential Schools and who have been forever changed because of it. Xavier, Elijah and Niska are ripped from the comfort of their naturalistic and self sufficient communities and thrown into materialistic environments where they are shamed and defaced. Each of these characters experienced the Residential schools in extremely different
The St. Jerome’s children of Indian Horse are innocent victims who suffer inexorably from threats, illness or suicide within both the Residential School and outside of it. Saul Indian Horse recalls seeing his schoolmates suffer right in front of his eyes. Saul describes ultimate acts to their suffering on page fifty-five “I saw kids die of tuberculosis, influenza, pneumonia and broken hearts at St. Jerome’s. I saw young boys and girls die standing on their own two feet. I saw bodies hung from the rafters on thin ropes.” These children are dying from maltreatment, malnutrition, neglect and oppression. If they do not die from an illness they must live on in misery and kill themselves; they just are not strong enough to move on. They cannot escape the pain of their maltreatment; their memories haunt their lives forever. The children who get out of the illness, death or beatings are not exempt from the religion and wrongful teachings that are imposed on them. Saul recalls these terrors on page eighty “We lived under constant threat. If it wasn’t the direct physical threat of beatings, the Iron Sister or vanishing, it was the dire threat of purgatory, hell and the everlasting agony their religion promised for the unclean, the heathen, the unsaved.” The Residential School System imposes a religion, discriminatory oppression and wrongful sanctions upon these children to push them
Griest, Stephanie Elizondo. “The Torture of Solitary.” Wilson Quarterly. Spring 2012: 22-29. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
Schissel, Bernard, and Terry Wotherspoon. “The Legacy of Residential Schools.” Inequality in Canada: A Reader on the Intersections of Gender, Race, and Class. 2nd ed. Ed. Valerie Zawilski. Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2010. 102-121. Print.
Imagine. You are alone with your thoughts. There is nothing that can separate you from their unpredictable horrors because you spend 23 hours a day completely alone. In silence you wait, desperate for a chance to leave the four-walled, concrete cell you now call home. These are the conditions of solitary confinement that are still in widespread use throughout America today. Although solitary confinement may seem like the safest way to protect other prisoners, guards and even the inmate himself, it is an inhumane and cruel punishment and it has the opposite effect of what prisons are intended for. .
By doing things, we learn who we are and we learn our worth as a person. The two things solitary confinement does are make people solitary and idle” (Sifferlin, Alexandra). Isolation and confinement remove prisoners’ ability to perform significant tasks and act as a part of society.
One man’s tragedy can define the lives of others. This was the result of the tragedy that befell James Blackbird in David Alexander Robertson and Scott B. Henderson’s graphic novel; 7 Generations. James, to the dismay of his wife and son, let these events define him and turn him into an alcoholic who never stopped mourning the loss of his brother Thomas Blackbird. Today, I want to prove that the long-lasting scars residential school left on him, should not cause him to be the source of blame for the shattering of his life.
In the book, Winn explains how these girls narrate their own lives, how they ended up incarcerated, and their lives after being incarcerated. The inmates use theater and acting to describe their lives. Winn describes Girl Time as “a theater program for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated girls in the urban southeast, which uses playwriting and the power of theatre to unearth the multiple stories of incarcerated girls” (p.3). Winn explains how the program operates and how teachers and students feel about art. Also, Winn explains to educators the implications on the community of these girls imprisonment.
For decades First Nations people1 faced abuse in Canada's residential school system. Native children had their culture and families torn away from them in the name of solving the perceived “Indian Problem” in Canada. These children faced emotional, physical, and sexual abuse at the hands of residential school supervisors and teachers. Since the fazing out of residential schools in the 1960's the survivors of residential schools and their communities have faced ongoing issues of substance addiction, suicide, and sexual abuse.2 These problems are brought on by the abuse that survivors faced in residential schools. The government of Canada has established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to address these issues but it has been largely ineffective. Though the Government of Canada has made adequate efforts towards monetary reparations for the survivors of residential schools, it has failed to provide a means to remedy the ongoing problems of alcohol and drug addiction, sexual abuse, and suicide in the communities of residential school survivors.3
School is a vital necessity for kids all around the world, it challenges them, gives them a place to learn, and offers them social interaction with kids their own age. Along with that, it can also be a place where students experience a feeling of love and care from their teachers, which in some cases, is a feeling that they don’t receive at home. Situations similar to this are exemplified in the essay “The Sanctuary of School,” which was written by Linda Barry with the intent to make the readers aware of child negligence. Barry describes this as an issue that doesn’t get enough attention, and she believes if it doesn’t garner more then neglected kids are going to get left behind. School is also a place where one can gain many valuable opportunities.
The narrator, an indigenous woman, embodies the impact and legacy of colonization in Canada. She declares herself to be “damaged” and says that “I make it a policy not to talk to people unless absolutely necessary,” indicating she has experienced past trauma. What caused this trauma is not specified by the narrator, however it would be safe to assume that the trauma could be related to colonization. Trauma has found to be transgenerational, particularly in indigenous communities and for those affected by residential schools and the sixties scoop. Those who survived abuses at residential schools often inadvertently passed on trauma to their children. Due to unresolved issues, survivors fell into habits of destructive behaviour, such as drug
Do you ever feel trapped when you are in a place that you have never been before? Isolation criticizes society since it does not let everyone be equal or have the same rights. Isolation can completely change a person, and it is usually for the worst. Society “acts” like they try to prevent isolation, but in reality they isolate people for certain reasons, then those people get judged for being “different.” Upon closer inspection it is human nature to deny equal rights because people that do not act, dress, or look the same are labeled as strange, and unfortunately, many times are not accepted by the majority of society. This gives authors a way to shine a light on society’s flaws.