A Quality Of Light By Richard Wagamese Sparknotes

Vincent Girard

Mrs.Brooks

NBE 3UI

June 8, 2023

From Light to Darkness

Indigenous communities have been subjected to racism in Canada for hundreds of years. The book A Quality Of Light by Richard Wagamese focuses on the unethical issues Indigenous peoples are facing in Canada while telling the story of a man named Joshua Kane. There are many issues this book touches on, one being the mistreatment that Indigenous communities are facing in Canada, which needs to change. In my writing, I plan to focus on the unethical wrong-doings that Canada has done to the Indigenous peoples.

Although born with Indigenous blood, Josh was adopted into a protestant family at birth and was raised into their religious beliefs. Being adopted into a white protestant

In the story, a character named Stazz talks about his experience being taken to a residential school, “One spring morning with the arrival of a bus that was soon filled with sobbing bodies of children'' (Wagamese 322). He along with many other children were taken in broad daylight and forced into residential schools. This was a common method of stealing Indigenous children from their families, where they were then taken miles away from home and forced to attend one of these schools. These schools were designed as a tool to alienate Indigenous children, leaving them traumatized due to the horrific situations they experienced. Children were beaten and locked away from others for things such as speaking their language and practicing their own religious traditions such as prayers. Stazz recalls when he was locked up for reciting morning prayer at sunrise. These traumatizing experiences often scarred children mentally and emotionally, leading to mental health issues such as depression. Like many other Indigenous children, Stazz grew up with mental health issues and ultimately took his own life while under the influence of alcohol, which was something he tended to stay away from. The horror these children faced was not uncommon, as many residential school survivors have experienced similar situations. Not only do they leave children scarred for life, but they also leave long-lasting effects on future generations such as cultural genocide, and intergenerational trauma. As a result of children being punished for their culture, it ultimately gets lost during their stays at these schools. Culture is a large part of self-identity, and when this is lost it often leads to a lack of self-belonging. Another issue caused by residential schools is intergenerational trauma which is largely caused by the abuse, both emotional and physical, that the children were subjected to. Intergenerational trauma largely affects future