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Essay On Residential Schools In Canada

502 Words3 Pages

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.
Though many First Nations people believed that the concept of these residential schools would help connect their children to a better life, residential schools were also faced with harsh criticism and strong resistance from First Nations parents and students. After generations of family members facing the harsh conditions of the residential schools, parents began to speak out against the use of residential schools, showing their discomfort and their discontent. Parents …show more content…

The idea of residential schools, the frustration of students in the environment, as well as hatred for the school system would have definitely drove many of the students to continue their defiant behaviours. The fear of losing their language; their culture; and most importantly, their identity, further increased their determination to resist the force put upon them in residential schools. Despite facing harsh punishments such as a variety of forms of corporal punishment, the idea of showing opposition towards a subject that they did not comply with was a much stronger force that drove students to engage in acts of resistance than the force of fear that the residential schools attempted to inflict toward them. As a result of this, many students were able to resist the desired outcome that the government hoped for, in spite of the

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They continued to resist against the Canadian government's attempts to assimilate them, and to use their land for projects that would cause their communities harm, such as building oil pipes, and an incredible amount of other causes impacting Indigenous peoples. Throughout the history of Indigenous people, before Canada was even a country, they have resisted the attempts of colonizers to take their land, and attempt to take their culture as well. Paragraph #2 for Response Questions #4 A specific historical moment mentioned in the timeline that connects particularly well to “The Right to be Cold” by Sheila Watt-Cloutier is the education heading in Dr. Susan Dion’s talk. The policy paper detailing more Indigenous control of their own communities' education under the Education headline was fought for by the National Indian Brotherhood, and it led to the Canadian government giving back control of Indigenous education back to Indigenous people.

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I was told to embrace my culture and traditions and share them with my peers. However, this was not the case for Indigenous children who went through the residential school system. The Indigenous children were told that their “languages, their cultures weren’t relevant, [and] they were told that their people and their ancestors were heathens and pagans and uncivilized” (National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation [NCTR], 2019, 0:46). The

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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.

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In the short documentary film “Canada’s shame: Residential schools, unmarked graves, and the search for justice- people and power” I learned a lot about what Canada did to the indigenous people regarding residential schools and the trauma we left on their community. The lives of the indigenous communities are forever altered because of the way these schools were designed to assimilate and strip the children of their identity. Carl Sam was just one of the Saint Mary’s residential school survivors and he says, “His experience at the residential school has stripped him of his whole life”. He goes on to say one day he was put on a boat and all the children were crying around him because they were taken out of their homes and they didn’t know what was going on,

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“Indian School Road” by Chris Benjamin sheds light on the horrific experiences of Indigenous children and families at residential schools. It is a non-fiction book that explores the impact of the residential school system in Canada on Indigenous Communities. The author focuses specifically on the Shubenacadie Residential School in Nova Scotia, where Indigenous children were taken and forced to attend the school from 1930-1967. The Canadian government established these schools intending to indoctrinate Indigenous children into Christian ways, with churches as the main locations and priests and nuns as educators. The book uncovers the history of the Shubenacadie Residential School, exposing the responsible individuals, the government's passive

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Over the past few decades, there has been many distinct perspectives and conflicts surrounding the historical context between the Indigenous peoples in Canada and the Canadian Government. In source one, the author P.J Anderson is trying to convey that the absolute goal of the Indian Residential School system in Canada has been to assimilate the Indian nation and provide them with guidance to “ forget their Indian habits”, and become educated of the “ arts of civilized life”, in order to help them integrate into society and “become one” with their “White brethren”. It is clearly evident throughout the source that the author is supportive of the Indian residential school system and strongly believes that the Indian residential School System

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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.”

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In the residential schools, students would be taught how to read as well and write in English and/or French because you needed to know how to do so if you wanted to communicate with white people. Learning to read/write would also help you do jobs and help you learn skills. Many people believed that the First Nation’s living off the land had to be changed and so schools also wanted the schools to teach them how to farm. As well as all this, the First Nations had asked the Canadian government for schools so they could get an education since their way of life was being lost. The buffalo were reaching critically low levels and could only live on small isolated reserves.

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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.

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Daniel Birch Mrs. Agostini ENG 2D1 Friday, May 2024 Cultural genocide, Trauma and addiction in indigenous communities What exactly have indigenous people gone through? Indigenous kids, families, and communities went through many forms of abuse within residential schools, all at the hands of the school staff in Canada. The novel Indian horse illustrates the impact that the residential school system had on Indigenous communities in Canada by focusing on the experiences of Saul Indian horse and how he decides to persevere despite all of the things he has faced within residential schools. Indigenous communities in Canada were impacted by the residential school system as the survivors experienced cultural genocide, trauma and addiction to alcohol.

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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

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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,

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319 Words | 2 Pages

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

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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

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Although residential schools were founded before Canada’s confederation in the Indian Act, attending residential schools became mandatory under the federal government’s amendment to the Indian Act in 1894 (Miller, 2012). Despite being crimes at the time they were committed, the Canadian government permitted the physical, sexual, cultural, and spiritual abuses at residential schools (Roach, 2014, p. 566). In fact, the objective of the Canadian government was to “kill the Indian in the child” as that was believed to be the best way to assimilate the indigenous population in Canada into the more dominant culture (Anisman, Bombay & Matheson, 2014, p. 322). In other words, residential schools did not provide proper education and indigenous children were taught that their language, cultural beliefs, and traditions are shameful and uncivilized (Anisman, Bombay & Matheson, 2014, p. 322). In addition, many of the children that attended residential schools and survived suffered from mental and physical health problems that persist today as generations of indigenous children were forced into the Indian Residential School System (Anisman, Bombay & Matheson, 2014, p. 323).

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