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Effects of the residential school system on Canada's Indigenous peoples
Effects of the residential school system on Canada's Indigenous peoples
Aboriginals canada schools
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The Secret Path - Main Idea When we read and watched the movie “The Secret Path” illustrated by Jeff Lemire and sang by Gord Downie I found the story thought provoking. The story was about a 129-year-old boy named Chanie Wenjack who was forced out of his home to attend a residential school. Chanie found that the schools were a horrifying and confusing experience, just like the other 150,000 First Nation and Indigenous children who were forcedto face the Residential School System. Chanie attended the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School for three years until one day, at the age of 12, he saw his chance and ran away with two of his friends, Ralph and Jackie Macdonald. They ran 50 miles to get to Ralph and Jackie's uncle Kelly and
his wife Clara, where they stayed for a while. Chanie was often quiet and Clara said “He was always looking at this map and you could get nothing out of him. I have never seen a kid before who was so quiet like that.” Nobody told Chanie to leave, nor stay, but one day Chanie left with only a windbreaker, 7 matches, and a plate of potatoes and bacon. He had to walk 600 km on a railway track to get home. The walk on the tracks was unspeakably painful, the temperature was anywhere from -6degrees to -1degrees and some of the time there was freezing pelts of rain. While walking on the railway track the horrifying images of the school continuously creeped intohis mind and Chanie knew then that those pictures would haunt him for the rest of his life. The seven matches slowly ran out,as didhis food supply, and within 32 hours he died because of cold and exposure. The story provokes me because the Residential School system deprived Indigenous, Inuit, and Metis children aged 6 to 13, of their identity. I am surprised the people of Canada let this happen here for a century, and thought it was okay to do this to other children. All of the Residential schools are closed but the problem is not fixed. Gord Downie taught me this by saying “The problem lasted 150 years and it will take 150 years to solve”. Canada is supposedly one of the best countries in the world, but is it actually if we took First Nations children from their homes and “killed the Indian in them” just because they have different beliefs and skin colour? Inputting Chanie’s story on paper, Gord Downie taught me to be optimistic and have hope even when life gives you hopelessness. Chanie was often optimistic on the railway tracks especially in the song “7 matches” when he said “As long as there were five, I’d be fine, as long as there were four”. In this quote,he knew his matches were running out, but he was optimistic and tried not to think about the matches running out and the possibility of death.In the song “Son” it said, “Even as the world convulses, don’t stop wishing what you wish”. I highly believe that to Chanie, this meant that even when all hope is lost you should still have hope. In the path of life, times will often be dark but knowing Chanie I know now that there is always hope and that optimism should never fade.
Some of the residential school students were so scarred from the way they were treated in the schools, that they even started putting the same abuse that they had received in the schools, onto their own children. The abuse has left the students with mental trauma and many of the students were unable to erase the memories of abuse from their minds. Many the survivors of the Canadian Residential Schools have been inflicting their children and spouses with physical abuse similar to the abuse that they had received previously in the Residential Schools. In an article talking about the victimization of aboriginals they stated, “Males who had experienced abuse as children were found to be at a significantly high risk to repeat the cycle of violence with future spouses” (Scrim as cited in McGillivray and Comaskey 1996). This sad cycle shows that even though the last Residential School closed in the late 1990’s, the experiences that students had during their time is still negatively affecting their lives today. Many of the former students of the Canadian Residential Schools have turned to substance abuse in hopes to try and cope with their struggling mental health. It is shocking to see that a school this harsh could have such long lasting impacts on its students. In an article related to helping people understand the trauma
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...
In Eden Robinson’s novel, Monkey Beach, there is a reoccurring aspect of the impacts residential schools have on aboriginal people. This viscous cycle of residential schooling involves removing children from their homes, disrupting cultural practices, punishing and abusing helpless children, and then sending them home to their parents who are also taught the same unhealthy behaviours. The purpose of residential school is to assimilate children into western culture, as indigenous cultures are seen as inferior and unequal. Due to residential school systems, there is an opposing force between Haisla culture and settler traditions; settler knowledge being of evident dominance, which results in suffering to the indigenous peoples on various levels:
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
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....
Our spirits Don’t Speak English: Indian Boarding school is an 80 minute documentary that details the mental and physical abuse that the Native Americans endured during the Indian Boarding school experience from the mid 19th to the mid 20th century. In the beginning going to school for Indian children meant listening to stories told by tribal elders, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and storytellers. These tales past down from generation to generation were metaphors for the life experience and their relationships to plants and animals. Native children from birth were also taught that their appearance is a representation of pure thoughts and spiritual status of an individual.
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.
Just like other Indian kids on reservation, Crow Dog’s childhood was poor in everyway; didn’t have enough food, clothes, education, and parents’ love. She was kidnapped to boarding school where Indian children are imp...
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
At these boarding schools, Native American children were able to leave their Indian reservations to attend schools that were often run by wealthy white males. These individuals often did not create these schools with the purest of intentions for they often believed that land occupied by Native American Tribes should be taken from them and put to use; it is this belief that brought about the purpose of the boarding schools which was to attempt to bring the Native American community into mainstream society (Bloom, 1996). These boarding schools are described to have been similar to a military institution or a private religious school. The students were to wear uniforms and obey strict rules that included not speaking one’s native tongue but rather only speaking English. Punishments for not obeying such rules often included doing laborious chores or being physically reprimanded (Bloom, 1996). Even with hars...
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,
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...
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.
In James Martin’s book, The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life, he outlines the different paths through religion that people can take. In the chapter, “The Six Paths”, he outlines each path, describing how they work, and what the benefits and pitfalls to each are. The six paths are: belief, independence, disbelief, return, exploration, and confusion. I tend to view myself more closely aligned with disbelief, with a dash of confusion and exploration thrown in. Through my experiences in life, I end up finding the most disagreement, personally, with the Path of Belief, and Disbelief. I find the pitfalls heavily outweigh the benefits of those paths, and in such I have commonly found a non-welcoming, elitist environment among people on those paths of religion. Before explaining my positions on
Children were taken away from their homes and told everything they knew was wrong. They were sent to boarding schools to change their culture. These boarding schools were run by the United States government. The government's goal was to civilize Native Americans. They sent children to these schools against their will. Native American children were educated like Americans and they had to change their native ways to be more like whites (Cayton 266). Teachers abused their students and beat their native ways out of them. They were not allowed to see their families so they would try to escape, but their attempts were unsuccessful. The United States government’s Boarding Schools of the mid-late 1800s irreparably changed Native American culture. In an effort to assimilate Native American children, the government violated the rights of the tribes to educate their own children and acted irresponsibly in the schools contributing to a loss of identity that has had enduring impact to this day.