On May 10th, the speaker, Aqua Nibii Waawaaskone, an indigenous singer, songwriter, storyteller, artist and activist, illuminated the aspects of the Indigenous community in the city of Toronto. She discussed the shortcomings that the Indigenous community had experienced throughout the history and development of Canada, specifically Toronto. Toronto has a long and intricate Indigenous history, in which most Torontonians are not cognisant of. Aqua referred to Toronto as Tkaronto, which was quite fascinating. When Aqua discussed the topic of residential schools, I did not react as much as I was exposed to this topic in other courses.…
In the article “Improve Aboriginal Health through Oral History,” which was published in the Toronto Star on Sunday, May 2, 2010, the author Nicholas Keung discusses the childhood of aboriginal in residential school and its effect on the healthy relationships.…
Series of traumatic events occurred while residential school were running, but it left a scars on aboriginal people forever. As an aboriginal women I get a lot of understanding from Pauline Johnsons “As it was in the beginning”, growing up on the Six Nation Reserve and having meet people who have experienced the same things as Pauline. Residential schools were open between the 1980’s and the 1990’s and the last school did not close until 1996, the year I was born. Pauline writes, “No more, no more the tepees; no more the wild stretch of prairie, the intoxicating fragrance of the smoke-tanned buckskin; no more the bed of buffalo hide, the soft, silent moccasin; no more the dark faces of my people, the dulcet cadence of the sweet Cree tongue”…
Jean Lafrance and Don Collins’ article titled, “Residential Schools and Aboriginal Parenting: Voices of Parents”, elaborates pellucidly “the effect that residential schools had on [aboriginal parents’] parenting”. It seems, according to the article, predominant that ‘[aboriginal children] were treated very badly right from the beginning.’ Lafrance and Collins suggest that the establishment of residential schools has deprived of aboriginal children’s own culture. In residential schools, aboriginal children cannot get any care from their parents. Essentially, they lose attachment - the most essential emotional tie - between their parents and them: they are not able to find anyone comfortable, familiar, or responsive. Specifically, Lafrance and…
Residential Schools: “Where the Spirit Lives” 1. How did residential schools try to assimilate aboriginal children? Explain at least six practices which promoted assimilation. • They changed the children’s look by cutting their hair which in some aboriginal culture has spiritual meaning, gave them different clothes to wear, and took away their identity by giving them new Christian names. • Forced Christianity…
Aboriginal people have had to suffer through many different experiences and social determinants over the years, one of them being Residential schools, which has added to many other issues and arising problems. Starting early 1800-1900’s, kids were taken from their families and forced to attend these schools. There were a variety of the schools across Canada. The schools were government funded, and run through churches, where priests and nuns taught; some of the teachers were hardly educated themselves. Families were told that their children must attend these schools, because of the Indian Act that had been implemented, or the family members would be arrested or suffer greater consequences.…
The film A Century of Genocide in Americas: The Residential School Experience is about how Native American children were taken from their parents, were forcedly sexually abused and were sent to residential schools in Canada and the United States because of their race. Each of these authors suffered…
“The Indian residential schools of Canada were a network of ‘residential’ (boarding) schools for Aboriginal peoples of Canada (First Nations [Indians], Metis, and Inuit) funded by the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs, and administered by Christian churches, most notably the Catholic Church in Canada and the Anglican Church of Canada.” (“Canadian residential school system,”1) The main purpose of residential school was to assist in the assimilation of Aboriginal people into Canadian society. A lot of Aboriginal children attended the school from the mid-1800s until early 1970s. By the late 1960s, there were 10,000 aboriginal students that attended 60 schools. However, these children had to be separated from their family in order to attend the school. Even though some family lived close to the school, the students were not allowed to live outside the school because the government afraid that the students might take bad influence from their parents and community, and when they attend the school, they would not become civilized as Christian setting as the school expected.…
In the article about the effect of mass incarceration regarding children falling behind in school, Melinda Anderson provides an overview of why children of color face a higher rate of educational issue- failing, dropping out, being held behind, etc.-in comparison to white children, due to the imprisonment of their family…
A Knock On The Door provides readers with a full outlook on Canada’s residential school system through a series of narrations and data analyses. The prime issue to notice is the persistency in Canada’s government to pursue the completion of a conscious policy of cultural genocide in events that hardly live up to the label of history due to its recency. Additionally, the book encompasses the structural oppressive social norms the Indigenous community endured such as being seen as savages instead of rightfully being seen as an equal to the Canadian citizen. Furthermore, the education system believed that Aboriginal children would never amount to much, or that they were incompetent for authentic education hence a lack of qualified teachers, authority-regulating protocols, but rather a greater emphasis on chores and punishments. Moreover, an essential aspect to keep in mind about residential schools is that this was…
Generations of first nation people suffer constantly because of the treatment they were subjected to in canadian residential schools. This is important because the violation of their human rights caused long term effects such as wrongful parenting, abuse, and drinking, this continually stops them from effectively contributing to the better future of Canada. This can be found in the extensive reports of abuse, violence, drugs and alcohol…
Residential schools have caused so much pain and suffering through the past and present generations of first nation people. Residential Schools caused a lot of the anti depressants problems native people suffer from today aka the use of alcohol and drugs not even mention the suicide rates. One of the biggest problems with the residential school survivors is the fact that none of them knew how to properly raise a child, they had zero patience because that's all they knew. Residential schools never taught the kids how to be loving parents all they taught them was to be violent. This took a big hit on the survivors children because a lot ended up committing suicide because they were depressed and thought their parents hated them.…
For over a century, residential schools played a major role in assimilating First Nations into what Europeans consider a "dominant society." (Keeshig-Tobias, 2003) As part of the British North America and Indian Acts in 1867 and 1876, respectively, the Canadian government felt it was integral for First Nations to improve their lives by educating them in what they felt were culturally acceptable. Many First Nations children lose their sense of identity, initially by having their physical appearances altered by church authorities and disposing of their belongings. As a result of this dark aspect of Canada's history, many of the residential school survivors encountered numerous problems psychologically from the…
In my experience, discipline in high schools has always been over the top. From what I heard, it has gotten so much worse since I left. Now the students need not only uniforms (just a strict dress code really) but also I.D. tags that they have to wear around their necks like cattle. They are herded from one class to the next with teachers and rent-a-cops waiting down every hallway to prod along the stragglers. Even when I was there, a student needed a good reason to be anywhere, and even with hall passes they were hassled by monitors on patrol. In the morning when they first get there (at the ungodly hour of six A.M.) they are subjected to metal detectors, random searches, and the occasional patrol of drug-sniffing dogs. There is absolutely no trust in the system, because after all, they’re just children and are not ready or able to make their own decisions, barring the fact that once they leave High School they will be completely responsible for everything in college.…
Aboriginals had to endure eternal suffering throughout the 20th century due to these wretched places. It is a mockery amongst people of Canada knowing there are vicious individuals in our multicultural society. Residential schools were massive failures of the Canadian government, which were built in order to 'welcome' First Nations into our society. Jane Glennon, a residential school survivor, made it clear that other Indigenous children in her school obtained crippling depression from mental suffering and ultimately, her outlook on life became negative. This statement is the reason why I must implement this Call of Action into our society. It is a melancholy and a heart-breaking piece of news to hear that First Nation children were forcefully removed from their households to essentially become slaves for the rest of their youth lives. The Government of Canada are the ones who have to be the most responsible for taking care of this matter; however, everyone else has to be accountable for restoring justice to those most affected. Funding for these healing centres to be built is the right step to provide unity between the Aboriginals and the people of Canada. Their minds will never forget the dreadful time living in a nightmare, but comforting others and apologizing with sorrowful thoughts is what makes us diligent…