It says a lot to me that we hear news of the horrible discovery of 215 dead children just as National Indigenous Peoples Month is starting. The past 150 years is indeed a tragedy for indigenous people in Canada, and the residential schools are only the worst visible part of that tragedy.
Canada's residential school system is based on the Indian Act. passed in 1876. It was intended to 'civilize' native children by removing them from their homes and educating them to fit into a white society. They were not allowed to talk their own language and abuse - physical, sexual and emotional, was rampant. The schools became compulsory in 1894 and the last one closed in 1996. Kamloops Residential School was the largest, with up to 500 students enrolled, and is one of the few still standing.
And today marks the beginning of National Indigenous Peoples Month! It's supposed to be a month of celebrating the positive achievements of indigenous people across the country. Perhaps this tragedy will wake up those Canadians who haven't thought much about these issues.
My own awareness of Indigenous peoples growing up was entirely positive, based first on the enormous totem poles I saw in the Royal Ontario Museum as a very young child (that's another story). While our own children were young and we travelled across the country we saw Indigenous dancers in Alberta as well as Indigenous carvers working on a totem pole on Haida Gwaii. I took students to an Indigenous community north of here to visit a fisherman and the community forester. All of those and others fed positive memories. But when William was at school in Thunder Bay and got his first job in Kenora I heard a very different story, of natives who drank too much or used drugs.
That threw me, but when I started hearing about the residential school system it all clicked in my mind. The fact is that even the many who survived the residential schools were emotionally damaged if nothing else. They found they could not fit into their home communities any more, and lost the ability to speak the language fluently, and yet they weren't welcome in white society either, simply because of the discrimination.
There are about 140 documented residential schools across Canada though in many cases the buildings no long exist. There are estimated to have been over 4000 deaths, but there may have been many more. Advocates are now demanding that all school sites be surveyed, using the same ground-penetrating radar technology that was used in Kamloops to ascertain where any unmarked graves lie. It's not as easy as it sounds, as it's hard to tell where the actual sites were in some cases and in others the land is now private.
And that is just the beginning. If these graves are to be excavated, children identified and gravestones provided that will take years of painstaking archeological work.
I intend to write more about native history in Canada, in the week leading up to National Indigenous Peoples Day, on the summer solstice, June 21st, so I'll be preparing for those over the next two weeks.
If you're wondering where all the images of orange shirts are coming from, it relates to 'Orange Shirt Day' on Sept. 30th, which has commemorated residential school survivors for nearly 10 years now. The orange shirt is based on Phyllis Webstad's story. She was an Indigenous child in B.C. whose grandmother bought her a bright orange shirt to wear for her first day at school. But when she got there, the orange shirt was taken away and she was dressed in the drab clothing provided by the school. Need I say more?
The information of the past is very troubling. The demand for conformity is common in a lot of countries past. It is hard to understand and will be difficult to reconcile. It is good to hear the truth. My own family has a member of the family, cousin, who has been in an institution since he was 12 for severe autism. He is now 72 years old and will stay their the rest of his life. It is definitely different yet the life he has lived has been tragic. His mother and father are gone and his sister died recently. Niece and nephew is his only connection to the outside world. His parents were not able to take care of him.
ReplyDeleteSuch utter sadness , and the cruelty that is beyond comprehension. I hope they use all modern technology and find the graves, give some sense of whatever they can muster to any remaining family member, and vow to never let this happen again. Patterns by Jen, the June colour is orange, so when I gather some orange batiks, the memory of Kamloops will be with me so strongly.
ReplyDeleteI didn't Know about the residential school system until about age twenty. We had a native Canadian lady move next door to us who quickly became a dear friend. We learned all about the atrocities inflicted on our indigenous peoples from her, who lived it first hand. I grew up close to a first nations community and my mothers closes friend went on to be clan chief. But we never heard the horror stories.
ReplyDeleteI went to school with students bussed in or billeted in our community, but I never got to know any of them. When I went north for my first job out of high school (bookkeeper and dispatcher for a air charter service) I got to know a number of the First Nations people. But again it was only on the surface - we never discussed anything more than the weather, their flights and occasionally their health. (I had to call Medical Services to approve a flight out to the nearest hospital in some cases).
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't until I was in university, in the 1990's that I took a course in Women's studies - which included a section on First Nations history did I learn of the residential schools and the horrors inflicted on the children.
My understanding is the Truth and Reconciliation committee provided a number of recommendations nearly 5 years ago for dealing with some of these issues. We, as Canadians, cannot turn our back on the history - it's time to hear the truth and make amends to those still impacted today.
How sad -- and unforgivable. The same happened down here in the U.S. with children being dragged from their homes to be "educated and civilized" as if their own cultures didn't educated them and as if their cultures weren't a civilization. I can barely imagine what went on at many (perhaps most) of those places.
ReplyDeleteThe cruelty is beyond belief. I recently watched "Anne With an E" that depicted a young girl wrenched from her family. She ran away but was caught and returned to the "school" that mistreated her so badly. I am so sorry for all the pain and misery that happened then.
ReplyDeleteThe damage persists today. I stopped on Parliament Hill today where the fountain around the eternal flame is surrounded by commemorations of this.
ReplyDeleteYou've done your homework on this issue. I had never heard of the handcuffs before. One old alcoholic pilot told me many stories of when he went out to pick up kids .
ReplyDeleteIt is deeply sad how horrible people can be when confronted with something or someone different. It doesn’t seem to matter what or how the difference is. I would like to think things are better now, but where one country improves and realises how wrong it was, another just goes and gets worse again.
ReplyDeleteYou have documented this so well, that I may just choose to send people to this post, if I post about it, which I should. I have pics of 215 teddy bears, for example.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate this post. I haven’t been able to write about it yet.
ReplyDeleteI was able to write about it today. It's all awful. So much harm done to people.
ReplyDeleteWith so much interest in other countries history, it seems we have so sadly missed so much of our own.
ReplyDeleteSuch a sad story. Recently I watched a movie that touched on the subject of the schools and how they took children away...those poor kids:(
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