Settler-Indigenous Education

Anthropology is the study of human societies. More specifically, it is a focus on cultures and their development of different human civilizations throughout history. While Canada is often seen as a nation of peace, prosperity, and open doors to diversity, this is truly not that case. Canada has a dark history of oppressing various groups throughout its time as a nation, however, no group has been more impacted by these wrongful acts of persecution than the Indigenous peoples of Canada. While, the Settler-Indigenous relationship was relatively amicable around the time period of the initial onset of European settlers, as time went on, European thirst for expansion overwhelmed the “climate”, causing relationships to grow increasingly hostile,
In order to combat these “issues”, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, sent Nicolas Flood Davin to the United States, to investigate their policy of “aggressive civilization” and to hopefully fortify a similar plan that could be enacted within Canada. On his return, Davin submitted his findings in the Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds (known as the Davin Report), which included numerous recommendations on how these American practices of Indigenous education could be emulated within Canada (Where are the
This view translated into the founding of a school system, recognized as the residential school system. Originally opening in Eastern Canadian provinces beginning in the 1880s, residential schools flourished and rapidly spread across the nation, and during its peak period of the 1930s, established over eighty operating institutions country-wide (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 2008). Residential schools were introduced by the Department of Indian Affairs as a way of “integration” of Indigenous peoples into Euro-Canadian society, through schooling Indigenous youth (usually seven to fifteen-year-olds) Canadian practices and “formal” education, being taught by missionaries of various Christian denominations. Children were removed from their family (in some cases, through force), and sent to attend residential schools, where they were forbidden to speak their native languages, or to observe their Indigenous customs, traditions, and practices. The goals of the residential schools were simple – to “kill the Indian in the child” (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada). The schools were used as a weapon of assimilation – forcing young Indigenous peoples to convert to Christianity, and to