Another form of discrimination that was placed upon the Aboriginal population was the assimilation families and children faced through the integration of residential schools. The idea behind residential schools was to try and “civilize” the Aboriginal nation. Children were taken from their families and were forced into forgetting their language, traditions, hunting and gathering skills, until they were entirely “European”. The discrimination faced by the Aboriginal nation still to this day is well beyond horrific. In her article “The Queen and I: discrimination against women in the Indian Act continues” Lynn Gehl states that “the goal of the Indian Act was one of assimilation and the arduous task of civilizing the savages--a national agenda” (Gehl, 2000). Residential schools, paternity laws, denied access to Indian status and criminalization of Indigenous culture imposed from the government are all examples of how the Aboriginal population has been racialized and discriminated from European settlers and the country of…
Carla William’s story is not exclusive. Thousands of Native children were removed from their homes routinely by Child Welfare and shipped to non-native foster and adoptive homes over the course of three decades. Previous to these removals Aboriginals were subjected to Residential Schools, this results in as many as five generations of Aboriginal children being removed from their families.…
As artist suggests that “many of us didn’t experience the residential schools firsthand, but are able to witness through learning and active participation in the reconciliation process” which is how future generation will remember and learn the history of how the indigenous people is being treated during residential schools…
Long before Europeans came to North America, The Aboriginal people had a highly developed way of life. This however all changed when the Europeans decided to settle among them. For the Anglophones and the French people of Canada it became more and more evident that something drastic would need to be done in order to fit them into their ideal perception of what it was to be Canadian. With the help of the church the Canadian government implemented the residential school system, which was devoted to providing a disciplined based ideal that promoted rejection of the aboriginal culture in favor of the dominant white population. The residential system would eventually become an official Canadian policy for the education of Indian. Even though there are those that state that the government was just looking out for the greater good of society. The fact is that the aboriginal people faced many hardships as a result, they lost their cultural identity and spirituality through the loss of the ability to speak their language, practice various ceremonies and rituals, but most importantly the ability to see their families. Many people during their stay within these institutions experienced both physical and emotional abuse, scaring them for the rest of their lives.…
In the 1920s the Aboriginals faced much prejudice in Canadian society and it was at this time that their unique way of living was most suppressed. In 1876, the Indian Act had encouraged the gradual disappearance of Indians as Indians and promoted their assimilation into Canadian society. This act had made all Indians "wards of the state" and left them with little control of their own affairs. The 1920s was the time that this act was really applied. The Indian Act had been created earlier, but the Canadian government never seriously implemented it to get rid of the Aboriginal culture once and for all until the 1920s. The government funded Residential schools and they were an extremely effective way to make the Aboriginal children forget their traditions. At first, attendance at these schools was voluntary but in 1920 all aboriginal children between the ages of 7 and 15 were now required to go to residential schools. The children were taken from their homes and at the schools were not allowed to speak their own languages or practice any cultural or spiritual rituals. This was extremely effective as these schools made aboriginal children forget their culture and when they grew up they could not pass it on to their own children, as they themselves knew nothing other than the "great Canadian way of life." In addition, all Aboriginals were sent to reserves in which they lived in poverty and despair. They lost their traditional lifestyles and were given poor land on which to farm. When the Aboriginals…
The idea of residential schools set out in 1846 and was put into action in the late 1890’s by the Department of Indian Affairs. The whole point of residential schools was deculturalization of aboriginals. However the government didn’t put it so bluntly. They would say that the aboriginals are put in a “white society” to learn how to become “better” Canadians.…
Most Canadians today have the misconception of residentials school existing a long time ago and is considered history when in fact, the last residential school closed 20 years ago. The main purpose of the residential schools was to force indigenous children into the Canadian society by educating them through the church's teachings. The residential schools existed for 165 years, the first school opening in 1831 that resulted in victimizing about 150,000 children. The system took children away from their homes only to return as teenagers that lead to them not being exposed to their culture. The students were dubbed as the stolen generation. The legacy of residential schools impacted the future generations of aboriginals…
During the 1800's, children were taken away from their families and friends from orders of the federal government. The government was working upon a system that isolated children from their families, traditions, language and culture. The purpose of residential schools was to take Indigenous children and "to kill the Indian in the child" (Erin Hanson), meaning to rip the Aboriginal identity out from the children. The government wanted all Indigenous children to be taught a culture that they thought was most suitable to a Canadian lifestyle: to become Christian and put into a Euro-Canadian way of living was the main idea and purpose for this schooling system. Children were forced to be taught a new culture, and to forget their already-existing culture. The residential schools system disrupted children on their ways of living in the 1800's, and still continuing on to this day. The federal government and their…
“The Indian residential schools of Canada were a network of ‘residential’ (boarding) schools for Aboriginal peoples of Canada (First Nations [Indians], Metis, and Inuit) funded by the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs, and administered by Christian churches, most notably the Catholic Church in Canada and the Anglican Church of Canada.” (“Canadian residential school system,”1) The main purpose of residential school was to assist in the assimilation of Aboriginal people into Canadian society. A lot of Aboriginal children attended the school from the mid-1800s until early 1970s. By the late 1960s, there were 10,000 aboriginal students that attended 60 schools. However, these children had to be separated from their family in order to attend the school. Even though some family lived close to the school, the students were not allowed to live outside the school because the government afraid that the students might take bad influence from their parents and community, and when they attend the school, they would not become civilized as Christian setting as the school expected.…
Jean Lafrance and Don Collins’ article titled, “Residential Schools and Aboriginal Parenting: Voices of Parents”, elaborates pellucidly “the effect that residential schools had on [aboriginal parents’] parenting”. It seems, according to the article, predominant that ‘[aboriginal children] were treated very badly right from the beginning.’ Lafrance and Collins suggest that the establishment of residential schools has deprived of aboriginal children’s own culture. In residential schools, aboriginal children cannot get any care from their parents. Essentially, they lose attachment - the most essential emotional tie - between their parents and them: they are not able to find anyone comfortable, familiar, or responsive. Specifically, Lafrance and…
Residential Schools were a product of the Canadian government to provide cultural genocide of the indigenous community with the intended effect of separation from their land, their culture, and their identity as Aboriginal Peoples. These schools were in effect from the 1870s until the last one closed in 1996, with over 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children who were forced to attend. Children, from as young as 4 years old, were taken from their homes and sent away to schools run by Christian Churches, to “kill the Indian in the child” said Duncan Campbell Scott, Head of Indian Affairs, in the early 1920s. According to the late 1800s Canadian Government, the use of Residential Schools was to “educate and convert Aboriginal children and youth and to integrate them into Canadian society” but instead, produced a colossal amount of disrupted lives and communities, causing long-term problems among Aboriginal Peoples. Copious amounts of these problems were caused when children were abused sexually, emotionally and physically by Priests and Nuns, for merely speaking their native language, crying, expressing their feelings or even voicing a hint of their culture. Many of them were deprived of food, exposed to unsanitary and overcrowded conditions, and at least 6,000 children died due to violence, suicide, malnourishment, disease and exposure to extreme weather.…
The worst aspect of Canada’s residential schools is the endemic abuse by the Europeans to the first nations children emotional, physical and sexual for which they are now know. Most residential schools close in the 1970’s. Criminal and civil suits against the government and the churches begin. Over 10,00 law suits have pass and the government, Stephen harper and churches issue a formal historic apology on behalf of the institutional racism that exist against the first nation people in front of an audience of aboriginal delegates. Institutional racism is constant as a pattern as it is there in the past and is still present today in Canada. The living standard of Indigenous people in Canada falls short of those of the non-indigenous and they along either other visible minorities remain as a group, the poorest in Canada. There continue to be barriers to gaining equality with other Canadian of Europe’s ancestry. The life expectancy of first nation’s people is lower, they have less high school graduates, much higher unemployment rates and incomes are…
Colonialism and oppression have acted as a tool in allowing First Nation youth to succumb to the social cycle of cultural shock “Certainly the agenda of aggressive assimilation through the residential schools has left a large, dark legacy and certainly we, as First Nations people, are trying to move forward from that” (Moore, D., Native school conditions, para. 27). Aboriginal youth may need to leave reserves to attend post-secondary education, but tend to be overcome with differences outside of the reserves. There are not enough social supports to aid in the adaptability that many youth are faced with. This leaves them lacking in the ability to be successful in their education, therefore returning to what they know to their cultural atmosphere. Colonialism has left an impact on many generations of Aboriginal peoples, for any persons that experienced it and survived, they were traumatized and left with long lasting effects that have been passed down to their children and grandchildren “In 1967, there were only 200 Aboriginal students enrolled in Canadian Universities out of a total Aboriginal student population of about 60,000” (McCue, H., Aboriginal people: Education, para. 17). Those that experienced residential schools have…
Recently, Aboriginal communities have begun to deal actively with the effects on all generations of the residential schools. They have started talking in healing circles, addictions and violence treatment programs that make the connection to the residential schools, and parenting and cultural programs that try to reclaim what was lost.…
The main purpose of attending school is to receive an education that helps an individual through every phase of their life. Every day that a student attends school, he/she has the opportunity to learn something that can change their life. For us, fortunate students, school is a place where we can learn new things, express ourselves and plan for our future. Residential schools, starting in the 1880s, were nothing like schools today. The purpose of residential schools was to assimilate Aboriginals into the Euro-Canadian way. By examining the dreadful school experience, risks of diseases and the impact it had on Aboriginal children, it is clear that residential schools were wrong.…