Essay On Residential Schools In Canada

This paper will review the first five chapters in J.R. Miller’s book Shingwauk’s Vision: A History of Native Residential Schools. These chapters examine the events that took place before residential schools were made, as well as looking into the historical context of Canada during this time period. The first chapter of the book explains the way in which indigenous communities educated their children before contact by the European settlers. The educational systems from these indigenous communities were much different than the European educational systems, in the sense of a formal, rigid, institution.

(King 64) explains the idea of residential schools and how the colonizer culture successfully broke up indigenous families and assimilated children into the settler culture. The culture clash between the Native Canadians and colonizer population was a problem to the western society and was unfortunately solved by the attempted termination of the indigenous culture. Once again, Thomas King portrays indigenous people by stereotypical means. The "wild" refers to them as being animals, savages and uneducated along with tagging them, similarly how hunters tag animals to keep track of them possibly due to them being a threat to society. All these effects of colonialism have caused

The residential schools had been built so that Indians (First Nations) could be educated and fit into Euro-Canadian

Residential schools were religious schools that were sponsored by the government in order to convert aboriginal children into the European – Canadian way of living.2 The government believed that if they were able to successfully assimilate the children, the Native culture would cease to exist, the children that would have participated in those schools would only be able to pass down the Euro-Canadian culture. Residential schools were ran in a methodical way, bells will ring waking up the children and motioning them to dress up then they were forced to attend a Christian church regardless of what they believed. After that breakfast would arrive then they would attend classes and do school work. There was a short period for the children to play, followed with dinner and then bedtime.

No longer allowing Aboriginal language had virtual made speaking the native language extinct. Genocide in the past has been trying to kill of people of a certain culture. In this situation, the residential school are trying to kill the culture not so much the

I hated them because they were Indians.” Mary Courchene, a former residential school student said this about her own parents. I believe that this is just an awful thing to happen to children, that they are pulled away from their family and told to despise them because of their skin color and culture. When the Native American children were brought to the residential schools the main goal was to assimilate them by eliminating their culture and native tongue. When I think of what Mary Courchene said I can’t help but feel unsettled, because

The 1920’s was a time of progress due to many factors in Canadian history some of these factors include women rights and how they gained them, arts and culture, canadian identity and technology and how technology improved drastically. Women's rights was a time of progress in Canada in the 1920’s bescuse women gained the right to vote in the 1920’s (except in Quebec) but not all women got to vote only white women did and the First Nations did not . Also in the 1921 election and they Agnes Macphail became the first woman elected to the Canadian House Of Commons and also four other woman Harriet Dick, Rose Mary Henderson, Elizabeth Bethune Kiely, Harriet Dunlop Prenter. This was a huge improvement in women rights because before than the had no

Residential schools had horrible effects on both the students who attended them and the generations which followed as the conditions were terrible, abuse left scarring memories and the actions/incidents had a dreadful impact on their life. Living conditions of the schools were so harsh that more than 4000 students died during ther time in the schools. The overcrowded schools made it difficult for many of the students who did not understand English or were new to the school to get extra lessons or help from the teachers, leading to severe punishment. In the movie, Abraham faced a similar situation as he did not know what the teacher was saying while the students were practicing marching, so along with beating him up with a stick,

This led to loss of identity, culture and tradition, which negatively effected Indigenous people; they often returned to their communities with no knowledge of how to survive and thrive in a traditional way. The education of children was of poor quality and was often forgone because the students needed to do work to support the school and keep it running. Arranged marriages were quite common, and this was to promote the ideas and worldview that was taught at residential schools. The speaking of Indigenous language and following of customs were strictly prohibited, which dramatically reduced Canadian Indigenous cultures because if an entire generation forgets it, it is gone. Furthermore, the treatment of students was very inhumane, children were punished very harshly, and the children were often verbally, physically, and sexually abused.

Imagine this. A very young child is taken away from its home, its parents, loved ones and friends and forced to live in an institution. This institution tries to unteach this child everything it has been taught and force it to live a completely new and foreign life. Sounds horrible, doesn’t it? Well, that’s exactly what the Residential schools did to many First Nations children of Canada, and that’s not even the worst part.

For many indigenous nations, surviving in the aftermath of residential schools is troubling as many suffer from historical trauma (Anisman, Bombay & Matheson, 2014, p. 320). Other than experiencing mental and physical health problems due to various forms of neglect and abuse, the indigenous population in Canada will continue to suffer as “attending residential schools across several generations will have cumulative effects” (Anisman, Bombay & Matheson, 2014, p. 320). In fact, historical trauma will further undermine the well-being of contemporary members of indigenous nations throughout Canada as historically traumatic events will accumulate across generations (Anisman, Bombay & Matheson, 2014, p. 322). It is, therefore, hard for indigenous nations to forget that they have lost their identities, culture, rights, land, and language under the Canadian government and fellow Canadian who they are constituting a political community

Lee Maracle’s short story “Charlie” raises themes of imperial education on Aboriginal children in Canada and the harmfulness this standardized European schooling causes on the people, communities, and livelihood of Aboriginal tribes. In just a few short pages, “Charlie” manages to convey the severity of the situation for Aboriginal children taken to Residential Schools in Canada in an attempt to assimilate them into the foreign culture, religion and values of European imperialism. The children in the school are shown to have adapted to the situation by feigning stupidity and dull resignation, while quietly resisting in their own ways; Charlie, the titular character, escapes his imprisonment through daydreaming and, later, running away. The

In Canada, the Aboriginal people comprise of the First Nations, Inuit and Metis comprising 4.3% of the national population in Canada, however, despite the large proportion of the population being indigenous, the relationship between Canada and indigenous people had been a turbulent and tense one. Since late 18th century, various policies were installed to help aboriginal people assimilate into “Canadian Culture”. The most noticeable one are policies concerning residential schools, where Aboriginal children were removed from their families and sent to such institutions. These government-funded, church-run schools were located across Canada and were established with the sole purpose of eliminating parental involvement in the spiritual, cultural

Junípero Serra has been decapitated, defaced, and became a saint all within a month’s time. He is surrounded by controversy. Many celebrated for he was the first Latino to become canonized. Rubén Mendoza of California State University of Monterey Bay explains, “Father Serra was not only a man of his time, he was a man ahead of his time in his advocacy for native people on the frontier.” However, Valentin Lopez who is the chair of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band explains that “Serra’s and the Church’s failure to learn form the teaching of Christ or from the life of St. Francis resulted in the complete extinction of many, many California tribes and great devastation for many others.”

In the 1800’s, the European people created Residential schools to assimilate First Nations children or in other words, taking the Indian out of the child. As a result, the era of residential schools left a long lasting impact on the Indigenous culture and identity. Several years after the last residential school closed in 1996, the Canadian government formally acknowledged the First Nations traumatic past involving residential schools through an apology. On behalf of the Canadian government, Stephen Harper apologized to all aboriginal people for their role in residential schools (Government of