What Are Aboriginals In Canada

In Canada, the term Aboriginal refers to First Nations, Metis and Inuit people who were the first to inhabit Canada. The aboriginal community represents 4% percent of the population in Canada with 1.4 million people having an Aboriginal heritage in 2011. (Statistics Canada, 2015). As aboriginals were the first people to inhabit Canada comes a long history full of injustices including a major injustice know as residential schools. Aboriginal people face multiple barriers in modern Canada such as unemployment, education, drug or substance abuse as well as higher crime statistics across Canada. The Aboriginal population faces issues such as racism, prejudice and segregation from the rest of the community on a day to day basis. The experiences
from residential schools that Aboriginal people suffered from has become the root cause for many of the issues they face today.
The term ‘residential schools’ was used to describe an extensive school system set up by the Canadian government and administered by churches to educate aboriginal children. However, with the methods used physical, mental and sexual trauma were prevalent and still affects the survivors today. Dating back into the 1880’s, the Canadian government joined forces with Anglican, Catholic, United and Presbyterian churches to educate the Aboriginal children using a school system designed to strip away the “Indian” within the children and replace it with Christianity to assimilate them into the dominant Canadian culture. There was 130 residential school across Canada in operation until the last one closed in 1986 with over 150,000 Aboriginal children attending these schools. (Hanson, 2014)
Life in residential schools was very difficult for the children as they suffered a multitude of loss and neglect.
The school system forced every single Aboriginal child to attend which involved taking them away with force from their homes and families to the residential school where they also lived on site. The children were not allowed to speak of their Aboriginal culture or language and were punished if they broke any of the numerous strict rules that were enforced. The children were sexually, mentally, spiritually and physically abused at the hands of the residential schools. Former residential school survivors recall being beaten, strapped and even electrocuted; some were shackled to their beds, while others had needles shoved in their tongues as punishment for speaking their native language. (Haig-Brown, 1998.) Upon arriving at the school, all the children’s hair was cut short, made to wear uniforms and the boys and girls were separated including siblings which further severed family bonds. (Hanson, 2014). The education the students received was very poor as most only taught up to grade five and the education focused on learning manual labor jobs instead of reading, writing or math. Boys were taught carpentry and farming and girls were taught domestic skills such as cooking, sewing and laundry and were forced to use these skills to work for the residential school. The students had to have a childhood without the nurturing support of family or the knowledge of how a
family operates which affects the parenting styles of the survivors today. Due to the abuse and living conditions in the schools such as overcrowding, inadequate food and health care, up to 75% of students who were let out of residential schools shortly died thereafter. A study conducted in 1907 by the government medical inspector reported that 24% of previously healthy children had died in residential schools across Canada (Milloy, 1997). The residential school system has resulted in a loss of Aboriginal language, culture and beliefs which were stripped from the children and still affects the Aboriginal population today as well as physical and emotional trauma which will last a lifetime.
Because of the residential school system, another barrier that the Aboriginal people face is education. As much of residential school survivors received education only up to grade 5, upon leaving the school system they did not have the ability to go back to school to get a high school diploma. Per a 2011 Canadian Household survey done, 64% of the Aboriginal communities living on reserves, do not have their high school diploma. Overall, 45% percent of Aboriginal people aged 25-64 had a certificate, degree or diploma compared to 65% of non-aboriginal people. (Statistics Canada, 2015). In modern day school systems, Aboriginal beliefs, values and history are not taught in the curriculum and the parents of Aboriginal students were most likely not passed on the knowledge due to residential schools so yet again Aboriginal students are missing out on being taught about their native culture.
Aboriginal students living on reserves receive below par education due to factors such as underfunding for the school or inaccessibility to education.
The Aboriginal Multi-Media Society reports that 90% of young children do not have access to adequate early childhood education such as preschool or kindergarten and the national Aboriginal student dropout rate is at 51%. (Laboucane, 2010). Students with parents who did not receive proper education are not able to be supported at home to learn the subjects which can often lead to students dropping out as education is not an asset that is deemed valuable. Educational institutes on reserves are underfunded so they cannot provide the same level of education that provincial schools receiving funding from the federal government can. Schools situated on reserves receive half the funding that provincial schools do and in the past 10 years funding increased 19% for on-reserve schools while provincial schools received a 45% increase. (Laboucane, 2010). Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada reports that in 2006-2007, the budget for aboriginal students in elementary and high school was 1.2 billion dollars which included 120,000 students, 518 school and 45 secondary schools however that is two thousand dollars less per student than provincial schools. (Laboucane, 2010). The government of Canada has released its budget for 2016 which states that over the next 5 years, $2.6 billion dollars are being invested into Aboriginal education
compared to 1.45 billion in 2014-2015. This $2.6 billion-dollar amount will support 108,000 students from kindergarten to grade 12 living on reserves in Canada. (Government of Canada, 2016). Residential schools have led to a lack of education for the Aboriginal community across Canada which leads to increasing dropout rates in schools. The students are not able to feel supported by older generations or as if education matters as many people in the community are not educated. This causes an on-going issue for Aboriginal people.
Many if not all the Aboriginal children who went to residential schools were abused and neglected for years mentally, physically and sexually. Childhood experiences lay the foundation for healthy development for the person’s life, and in the case of residential school survivors it was only damaging experiences. Deep emotional wounds from the survivor’s trickle down the generations causing dysfunctional family relationships, depression, substance abuse, family violence and increased suicide rates. (Trauma Information Center). As the children were ripped away from their parents and family life and entered a life of abuse and separation, the healthy psychological foundation for their life would never be there. Instead it was replaced with an inability to attach to people and have healthy bonds as well as not have the knowledge of how to parent and be in a family unit. With this great loss, has cause generations of Aboriginal people to not be able to provide and support their children and end up having them taken away by social services. Per a household survey done by Statistics Canada in 2011, there was more than 14,000 Aboriginal children 14 years old and younger in foster care which accounts for 48% of all children in foster care in Canada. (Turner, 2016).
As per a study done by the National Aboriginal Health Organization in 2002, concluded that 30% of all Aboriginal people felt they had major depressive episodes for two weeks or longer and 17% of Aboriginal people seeked professional mental help where the non-aboriginal group was 8%. From the same study, it showed that 75% of the Aboriginal population felt that substance abuse was an issue in their community and 25% percent said that they personally have an issue with substance abuse. (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2006). With higher than average depression and addictions rates, comes a pandemic that is plaguing reserves across Canada which is suicide. 31% percent of Aboriginal people claimed to have had suicidal thoughts while 1 in 6 have attempted suicide. In a report done by the Canadian Institute of Health in 2000, suicide by Aboriginal youth age 15-24 were 6 times higher than non-aboriginal youth in Canada. (Public Health Agency, 2006).
Many issues that the modern day Aboriginal community faces can be traced back to experiences and trauma rooted in residential school survivors. These issues include mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and substance abuse, poor education, under educated members of society, inaccessibility to healthcare, poverty and increasing suicide rates. Aboriginals make up 4% of all of Canada’s population and are currently facing a multitude of challenges today.