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How residential schools have damaged the indigenous community
How residential schools have damaged the indigenous community
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In the short story "Legend of the Sugar Girl", Joseph Boyden depicts the life of Indigenous children who were taken away from their parents by the government. As a result, the children were compelled to attend a Residential School. While attending the Residential school, the students had to speak English rather than their native Indigenous languages. In addition, they could not communicate with their parents while attending school. Forcing Indigenous children to separate from their families, and sending them off to Residential school as a result of policy created by the white man has negative effects such as: the children losing their culture and mental health. Furthermore, students were often sexually and physically abused.
Attendance of Residential schools has negative health effects on indigenous children and their families. For example, a study was done on 13 881 "Inuits, Metis and off-reserve First Nations or North American Indian adults(Kasper 2)". Factors including: "demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, and community-level adversities" were controlled for. What the study found was negative health impacts, such as a decline of mental fortitude, affected more children who attended Residential school than those who did not. Additionally, "socioeconomic and
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community(Kasper 4)" factors, such as how a culture progress and regresses, were negatively affected. The culture that the children had prior to Residential schooling changed to follow that of the European set of morals. As a result of being forced into Residential schooling the children in the "Legend of the Sugar Girl" lost their culture.
They could not speak their native languages, in addition, they could not communicate with their parents. Joanna Rice describes that these "schools were designed and operated by the church and state with the purpose of destroying Native cultures(Rice 1)". This loss of culture affects core beliefs and values, These beliefs and values are important as it dictates how moral behavior is passed on from generation to generation. It is no wonder that "every Aboriginal community in Canada today is affected by the experience of residential schooling (Rice
4)." Sexual and physical abuse is rampant in Residential schools. In a study, the testimony of former students found that "widespread neglect, starvation and extensive physical abuse(1 Rice)" was prevalent. In addition, the study showed that sexual abuse affected as high as 75% of students. Residential schooling is a proven cause of widespread human rights violations. Forcing Indigenous children to attend Residential schooling has many negative impacts on their lives, including: a loss of their mental fortitude and culture. Additionally, physical and sexual abuse was common. However, the government did not care and sent them off anyway. The law of sending children off to Residential schools created incalculable harm.
Though the film mentioned the impact that residential schools had and still has on the aboriginal people, I felt that this issue needed to be stressed further because the legacy of the schools is still extremely prominent in aboriginal communities today. The film refers to the fact that residential schools harmed the aboriginal people because they were not able to learn their culture, which has resulted in the formation of internalized oppression within in the group. “The...
This again shows the traumatic effects of residential schools and of cultural, psychological, and emotional upheaval caused by the intolerance and mistreatment of Aboriginals in Canada. Settlers not only displaced Aboriginal people from their land and their homes, but they also experienced emotional trauma and cultural displacement.
In connection to the story A Short History of Indians in Canada, the “Indians” are dying repeatedly due to the fact that in history, they were forced to go into residential schools and were
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
These individuals struggle to get by and become successful. Since the Sugar Girl and her siblings are away at residential school, their family breaks apart and there comes a point when they “barely talk with their parents anymore” (166). This shows how the families of Indigenous peoples suffer and struggle to maintain strong relationships, due to such unfortunate events. Over the years, the Sugar Girl grows more comfortable with her life at the residential school, since she thinks the nuns provide her everything she needs. However, once it becomes time for her to leave the school, she realizes that “what they neglected to give her was the ability to find these things on her own” (167). The Sugar Girl was given minimal independence and opportunities to develop these skills. As a result, she and others in her position struggle to get by in the real world. As for the drunk man in “Rock Bottom”, he finally leaves residential school, only to find his family engaging in violent relationships. Likewise, Sanderson illustrates how the young man struggles to obtain a job and actually keep it. He does not have enough money to pay his bills, support himself to make a living, or access adequate food and shelter. Moreover, he is eventually evicted from his apartment, as he is unable to pay his rent, and turns to a local shelter.
Across North America, the scattering of Aboriginal children contributed to damaged identifications with traditional First Nations culture (Alston-O’Connor 2010). Consequently, the Sixties Scoop caused irreversible psychological, emotional and spiritual damage to not only the individual, but to the families and the community too. 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 abused and neglected....
Residential schools had a negative impact on Aboriginal people, many children suffered greatly. The government had thought Aboriginal people’s history and culture were not worth preserving.This resulted to loss of culture and assimilation, because they were stripped out of their traditional ways, and taken away from their families.Stephen Harper apologized to the former students enrolled in Indian Residential schools on behalf of the government of Canada. What
Adjusting to another culture is a difficult concept, especially for children in their school classrooms. In Sherman Alexie’s, “Indian Education,” he discusses the different stages of a Native Americans childhood compared to his white counterparts. He is describing the schooling of a child, Victor, in an American Indian reservation, grade by grade. He uses a few different examples of satire and irony, in which could be viewed in completely different ways, expressing different feelings to the reader. Racism and bullying are both present throughout this essay between Indians and Americans. The Indian Americans have the stereotype of being unsuccessful and always being those that are left behind. Through Alexie’s negativity and humor in his essay, it is evident that he faces many issues and is very frustrated growing up as an American Indian. Growing up, Alexie faces discrimination from white people, who he portrays as evil in every way, to show that his childhood was filled with anger, fear, and sorrow.
The most harmful to the Indigenous society was the residential schools because the young Aboriginal children were taken from their homes, told their language and customs were not allowed, unacceptable and there would be consequences if they did. The Indigenous were separated from their families to assimilate the Indigenous into the so called “white culture.” There was a residential school called the Mohawk Institute Residential School in the area of Branford run by the government. It started as a day school for boys on the Six Nations reserve, then accepted female children later. Former students of the schools described suffering sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. There was low quality food, and they cut some Indigenous peoples hair off. This subject always changed the way I saw these schools because they were the most harmful the Indigenous underwent and I could never understand what it felt like or what happened
During the 19th century the Canadian government established residential schools under the claim that Aboriginal culture is hindering them from becoming functional members of society. It was stated that the children will have a better chance of success once they have been Christianised and assimilated into the mainstream Canadian culture. (CBC, 2014) In the film Education as We See It, some Aboriginals were interviewed about their own experiences in residential schools. When examining the general topic of the film, conflict theory is the best paradigm that will assist in understanding the social implications of residential schools. The film can also be illustrated by many sociological concepts such as agents of socialization, class inequality, and language as a cultural realm.
Residential schools were first established in the 1880's to solve Canada's “Indian Problem”. Settlers in Canada thought of the First Nations people as savages, and the goal of the residential schools was to civilize them and integrate them in to white Canadian society. The first operators of residential schools thought of their forced integration as a benefit to native peoples. One of the overseers of residential schools wrote to the Sisters in charge of St. Joseph's Mission at Williams Lake that “It now remains for ...
The Indian Residential schools and the assimilating of First Nations people are more than a dark spot in Canada’s history. It was a time of racist leaders, bigoted white men who saw no point in working towards a lasting relationship with ingenious people. Recognition of these past mistakes, denunciation, and prevention steps must be taking intensively. They must be held to the same standard that we hold our current government to today. Without that standard, there is no moving forward. There is no bright future for Canada if we allow these injustices to be swept aside, leaving room for similar mistakes to be made again. We must apply our standards whatever century it was, is, or will be to rebuild trust between peoples, to never allow the abuse to be repeated, and to become the great nation we dream ourselves to be,
The over-representation of Aboriginal children in the Canadian Child Welfare system is a growing and multifaceted issue rooted in a pervasive history of racism and colonization in Canada. Residential schools were established with the intent to force assimilation of Aboriginal people in Canada into European-Canadian society (Reimer, 2010, p. 22). Many Aboriginal children’s lives have been changed adversely by the development of residential schools, even for those who did not attend them. It is estimated that Aboriginal children “are 6-8 times more likely to be placed in foster care than non-Aboriginal children (Saskatchewan Child Welfare Review Panel, 2010, p. 2).” Reports have also indicated that First Nations registered Indian children make up the largest proportion of Aboriginal children entering child welfare care across Canada (Saskatchewan Child Welfare Review Panel, p. 2). Consequently, this has negatively impacted Aboriginal communities experience of and relationship with child welfare services across the country. It is visible that the over-representation of Aboriginal children in the child welfare system in Canada lies in the impact of the Canadian policy for Indian residential schools, which will be described throughout this paper.
The creation of the Residential Schools is now looked upon to be a regretful part of Canada’s past. The objective: to assimilate and to isolate First Nations and Aboriginal children so that they could be educated and integrated into Canadian society. However, under the image of morality, present day society views this assimilation as a deliberate form of cultural genocide. From the first school built in 1830 to the last one closed in 1996, Residential Schools were mandatory for First Nations or Aboriginal children and it was illegal for such children to attend any other educational institution. If there was any disobedience on the part of the parents, there would be monetary fines or in the worst case scenario, trouble with Indian Affairs.
The government’s goal of the Residential School System was to remove and isolate the children from their families and their culture in order to assimilate the Indigenous race to the dominant new Canadian culture. What the citizens did not know about was the