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The impact of ww2 on Canada
The impact of ww2 on Canada
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Indian Residential Schools is a horrible event that happened from the 1840s until the 1990s. From these past mistakes in judgement, the education system has added curriculum to bring more knowledge to the event. By doing this we read “Indian Horse” by Richard Wagamese which is a fictional novel based on true events. It is about an Ojibway boy who experienced the hardships before, during, and after the Indian Residential School. The importance of learning the past is to ensure that this can be prevented in the future, to recognize what happened, and to help those affected by Indian Residential Schools.
The clergy would punish the kids for speaking their own language. Once, the clergy “washed [a boy’s] mouth out with lye soap for speaking Ojibway. He choked on it and died” (48). The reader believes that the children should be able to speak their own language. Residential Schools were anything but fun.
However, what is presented is even more dark and appalling. This book differs from typical non-fiction works on residential schools in its unflinching revelation of the ugly truths. Benjamin does something remarkable by shifting the focus from the victims to the perpetrators. While most people are familiar with the survivor stories of Indigenous children, with emphasis on the abuse they endured and loss of their cultural identity; few works delve into the actions of the oppressors. Benjamin's approach is not intended to diminish the survivor's experiences, but rather to shine a light on the abuse of power by the priests, nuns, and government, which has gone unchecked for too long.
Indigenous people across Canada have been suppressed by the government, system, and settlers still to this day. The residential school system was a system of boarding schools that were established by the Canadian government and administered by various churches to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture. Many of these children suffered physical, sexual, and emotional abuse from school staff. Even though residential schools have been abolished they can still affect indigenous people today. The book “Indian Horse” clearly represents the intergenerational trauma of Indigenous communities in Canada.
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.
The establishment of residential schools marks a dark chapter in Canadian history. The residential school system was a nationwide network of boarding schools with the purpose of destroying the Indigenous identity and assimilating children into the dominant European-Canadian culture. The schools were known for their harsh environments, abuse, and mistreatment, which led to generational trauma and long-lasting effects. Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese, narrates the life story of Saul Indian Horse, a young Ojibwe boy whose identity is stripped away and who is taken from his family to attend one of these schools. The book examines Saul’s journey, from his traumatic school experiences to his love for hockey.
The majority of the survivors from the residential schools have been able to come together and take steps in the direction of their healing. Not only did the residential schools affect numerous generations of people, but they also affected their families and, later on, their children. In many stories of residential school survivors, they talk about the generational trauma experienced within their families and also their many communities. The children of survivors of residential schools have trauma passed down to them by their parents indirectly and occasionally directly. They become traumatized after hearing about the horrible experiences their parents had to endure and the underlying fear that it could happen to them as well.
The TRC’s “The History” author appeals to logos through the use quantitative findings. The use of logical evidence from the collection of testimonials made by former residential school students is an effective way to aid the persuasion of a reader. Throughout “The History”, the author describes the memories of known First Nations peoples Frederic Ernest Koe, Marlene Kayseas, Lily Bruce and many others. In addition, the author quotes Vitaline Elsie Jenner’s use of ‘kaya nakasin’ (TRC, 2015, p.38) in describing her experience with residential school. The author’s example that contains the use native language reaffirms his credibility and detailed knowledge of the
He writes, “The idea of the boarding schools was to forcibly break the family bonds that, in the opinion of many, kept Indians from becoming civilized and part of the American public” (RRACCCTW page 658). The children were stripped of their language, customs, and culture. Their hair was cut and their names were changed. Essentially, they were stripped of their identities. This is a clear example of one-way assimilation, which is when certain ethnic groups are forced to give up their culture and customs in order to fit in with society.
Braidyn Morse, Mr.Heacht Ela, 10 5-24-24 Cultural Loss and Boarding Schools and Why Many Avoid Reservation Life. The history of the Native American residential schools is very sad and depressing because of the loss of culture and forced adaptation to the bad living conditions. For a long time Native American children were forcibly taken away from their families to get their culture taken out of them and for them to forget it and be ashamed of it. How “Junior leaves the reservation, and just like how others were forced to leave for school and chose to leave for other reasons” but Junior was not forced like other kids.
In the 1800s, Native Americans were oppressed because they were deemed to be “uncivilized” barbaric human beings. In order for Native Americans to become assimilated into the “white mans” culture of that time, Native American children were enrolled into boarding schools. Students in these boarding schools have had both positive and negative experiences. In the novel, Recovering Native American Writings in the Boarding School Press, by Jacqueline Emery, Henry Caruthers Roman Nose reflects on his experience in the boarding school through essays, and in the novel, American Indian Stories, Legends and Other Writings, Zitkala-Sa reflects on her experience through different types of writings. Despite how Henry Caruthers Roman Nose found boarding
There has long been significant historiographical and popular controversy about the conditions experienced by students in the residential schools. While day schools for First Nations, Metis and Inuit children always far outnumbered residential schools, a new consensus emerged in the early 21st century that the latter schools did significant harm to Aboriginal children who attended them by removing them from their families, depriving them of their ancestral languages, through sterilization, and by exposing many of them to physicalleading to sexual abuse by staff members, and other students, andenfranchising them forcibly.
Neither were the parents allowed to visit their children so the time the kids were finally able to go back with their family they started to become practically like strangers to each other because they knew very little about each other especially since many of the children were younger and had spent most of their lives in these school. The lack of communication between the Native American parents and children was another reason many parents weren’t aware of the trauma the kids were suffering in the homes. The kids were so affected they remember that even at night when they were left alone to sleep they were all so quiet and no one talked about what was happening to them. The native children didn’t have normal childhoods they didn’t play or interact with each other this alone shows how affected they were with the boarding
Imagine being ripped apart from family members, culture, tradition, and labelled a savage that needs to be educated. Imagine constantly facing punishment at school for being one’s self. Unfortunately, these events were faced head on for many First Nations people living in Canada in the late 20th century. These First Nations people were the victims of an extensive school system set up by the government to eradicate Aboriginal culture across Canada and to assimilate them into what was considered a mainstream society.
Residential schools were cruel places where indigenous people had no choice but to do things they weren 't okay with and did not want to do. Residential schools are a huge part of Canada’s history because of what they stood for. They were a boarding school indigenous people were forced to attend, where they learn valuable things but were in turn abused. In these boarding schools, indigenous people were forced to give up their family, culture and their way of life.