The dismal legacy of residential schools in Canada is marked by the trauma and abuse experienced by Indigenous children. Numerous students protested their harsh treatment through acts of defiance, including theft, disruption, and even arson.
Residential schools were made to aid the Canadian Government in assimilation of the indiginous population of Canada. The schools were run by the church (typically th catholic church), and were government funded (although the government made an attempt to make the schools themselves sustainable). There were an estimated ~6,000 deaths that occured in the schools because of disease, starvation, neglect, abuse, and more. The first residential schools were opened in around 1880, and the last to close was in 1997.
The Indian Act was a law passed in Canada in 1876 that defined the status of the First Nations people in Canada amongst other things. A main reason the Indian Act was ever conceived was to help Canada get rid of it’s “Indian problem”. Within this act, there is a section where schools will be provided, and these are what eventually became residential schools. Eventually, a revision to The Indian Act in 1920 made attendance to Residential Schools Mandatory.
In 1996, 12 year old Chanie Wenjack ran away from Cecilia Jeffery Indian Residential School to escape the abuse and poor treatment of the staff within the school. He only had thin cotton clothes while he was walking along the railway tracks, and ended up succumbing to the harsh cold of October. Reporter Ian Adamns had the story added to MaClean’s Magazine in February 1967, bringing lots of attention to the poor and inhumane treatment of indiginous kids within residential schools.
More and more children decided to act out and protest against their treatment in residential schools. They’d often do this by stealing food/supplies, disrupting class or causing chaos in the kitchen, or running away. At least 25 fires were started by students as an extreme form of protest.
In 1969, the Residential school system was handed to the Department of Indian Affairs, taking away the Church’s control over the system. There was quite a stir from the church because of this, but even so, the government started to slowly phase out Residential schools.
Residential schools were government funded and church run schools made to take indiginous children from their homes to make assimilation of the indigious population easier for the government. The first was established in ~1880, and the final government-funded residential school to close was Gordon Residential School in 1997.
The TRC (Truth and Reconciliation commission) is a government funded public inquiry that goes in-depth about everything that happened within residential schools. The TRC is one of five main parts in the greater IRSSA (Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement). The TRC concluded that about 150,000 indiginous children were taken from their homes to attend these schools.
On june 11th, 2008, Prime Minister Stephan Harper issued a formal apology to the indigeinous population of Canada on behalf of the government of Canada. He addressed the abuse that would go on in residential schools and the attempted cultural genocide that came from the government’s “assimilative ways”.
Due to facing extreme trauma at a very young age from residential schools, it takes its toll on parents, who are more likely to abuse or neglect their own children. Parents who were survivors of residential schools are more likely to abuse substances, and this can lead to many problems within a family, like neglect, physical or verbal abuse, or more.
Although the government has provided some funding for indigious people who wish to gain a post-secondary education, there’s still a backlog. There is also a discrepancy between the funding of indiginous children who get educated on and off reserves.
The First Nations Information Governance Centre did a survey and in their findings they were able to prove that the residential schools had a much bigger impact on the children than you may think. More than 4 in 10 survivors say they survived sexual abuse at the schools, while 7 in 10 say they were pyhscially and verbally abused. Nearly 2 in 3 people say that the schools negatively impacted their health compared to the 10% and quarter of those who it impacted in a good way or had no change at all respectively. Those who survived schools are more likely to think about or attempt suicide or abuse drugs. About 1 in 4 teens on reserves that had a parent/grandparent attend a residential school have considered suicide, compared to the 1 in 10 that didn’t have a parent or grandpartent attend a school.
Health issuses within survivors
and their children
Higher abuse rates within families
Persistent lack of education
A formal apology from
Prime Minister Stephan Harper
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Protests from Children
in the schools.
Residential Schools ending
Church involvment
“The Lonely Death of Chanie Wenjack”
in MaClean’s Magazine.
