The Residential School System
Introduction
The residential school system involved a network of boarding schools for the Indigenous Canadian people (Miller, 1996). The school system was funded by the Department of Indian Affairs of the Canadian Government. The schools were run by strict Christian churches and their purpose was to eliminate the ‘Indian culture’ from the indigenous people. The schools had two major objectives. The first one was to remove and isolate Indian kids from their families, homes, cultures and traditions. The other objective was to assimilate the isolated children into the dominant Canadian culture. The objectives were based on the notion that Aboriginal cultures and beliefs were inferior to backward. After more than 100 years of running the residential schools, today we recognize that the scheme caused more harm to the children than benefits and therefore has no place in the current Canadian culture (Miller, 1996). The essay will therefore discuss the various aspects of the Residential School System.
What Led to the Residential Schools?
When the Europeans settlers migrated to Canada, they brought with them the belief that their civilization was the center of human achievements. They had the assumption that their civilization should be adopted by all the people over the world and any society other than the Europeans was inferior to them (Miller, 2017). On settling in Canada, they interpreted the social cultural differences between the Aboriginal people and their culture as an evidence that the indigenous inhabitants were savage, ignorant and needed to be guided out of their cultures. The urge to civilize the Aboriginal people was the factors that led to the establishment of the residential schools (Miller, 2017). Being the responsibility of federal government, they partnered with the Christina churches to educate the indigenous people.
Sir John Macdonald, the Prime Minister, decided to study industrial schools in the US so that he can apply the same format in Canada. Through the help of a journalist, Nicholas Davin, the prime minister preferred to follow the American ‘aggressive civilization’ where the indigenous people had to be forced to become civilized (Miller, 2017). The aggressive civilization laid the foundation for residential schools in Canada as much of the teachings and programs were borrowed from the Americans. In a report that urged the Macdonald to establish the residential schools, Davin wrote that “If anything is to be done with the Indian, we must catch him very young. The children must be kept constantly within the circle of civilized conditions” (Miller, 1996). This was part of the 1879 report that suggested that the Aboriginal children had to be separated from their families at a young age. This was to ensure that they did not get any influence from their parents or any members of the traditional society.
In the early 1880s, the federal assimilation policies in conjunction with the Canadian government began the establishment of residential schools across the country. Children were forced away from their home communities and taken in far way boarding schools. This was a strategy to alienate the kids from familiar environment and cultures to foreign communities where they had no alternative other than learning new ways. In the year 1920, the Indian Act was passed into a law where every Indian child had to mandatory attend a residential school (Miller, 2017). It became illegal for the indigenous children to attend any other form of school and it was even punishable to their parents.
Residential Schools Living Condition
The living condition of the Aboriginal children in the residential schools was to reflect the elimination of the indigenous culture. Therefore, it applied all the measures that the government thought could improve the chances of success in their scheme. Students in the schools were forced to have their hair cut short and dress in uniform (Miller, 2017). Their days were scheduled into strict timetables running from morning to evening with very little time for interactions with the outside world. There were separate classes for boys and girls and even siblings were not allowed to interact with each other, a big blow to family ties. Bobby Joseph, a survivor of the residential schools recalls that he did not know how to associate with girls and never got to know his sister apart from a naïve wave in the dining halls during meal time (Miller, 2017). The school system also never allowed the students to speak their native language or practice any Aboriginal culture within the school, an act that was highly punishable in the schools. This was another strategy to make the children forget about their language and cultural practices and in turn embrace the mainstream culture.
The Aboriginal children did not receive the same education as the other Canadians in the public schools because the residential schools were underfunded and teaching was poor (Miller, 1996). They were mainly taught the basic practical skills which could not help them a lot in the society. The boys were taught about blacksmith, farming and carpentry while the girls were taught sewing, cooking and laundry. In addition, the children only attended classes part-time and spend the rest of the time working for their schools. The boys practiced farming in the school firms and maintenance while the girls generally practiced housekeeping. The work was not voluntary and the students were not paid. The schools claimed to help the students in practical skills but they could rarely run without the work provided by the students. Learning was so poor in the residential schools that some students attained the age of 18 while in grade 5 (Wilk, Maltby & Cooke, 2017). These students were forced away of the school with little education to help them cope with the needs of the society. Due to their advanced age, many were discouraged from continuing with their studies, an act that made the Aboriginal population some of the community member’s with the least level of education. As a result of the low level of education, they could rarely get meaningful jobs from the government or any other organization.
The student’s in the school experienced widespread psychological and emotional abuse from the school staff. Physical abuse was also common but it was termed as punishment. Another form of abuse that was common in the schools is sexual abuse where the children were exposed to sexual predators within the school system (Wilk, Maltby & Cooke, 2017). Survivors of the residential schools recall how they were beaten and strapped by their teachers. Others had needles prinking their tongues for speaking native languages. These kind of abuse coupled with poor sanitation, overcrowding, poor healthcare and inadequate food in the schools lead to a shockingly high death rates in the schools. In 1907, Bryce P. H, the government health inspector revealed that 24% of previously healthy indigenous children were dying in the residential schools (Wilk, Maltby & Cooke, 2017). He further exposed that between 47% and 75% of students discharged from residential schools died a short time after returning to their homes due to underlying health problems suffered while at school.
Conclusion
The residential school system was established to ‘civilize’ the Aboriginal people and make them fit in the mainstream culture but what it did was more harm than good. Many decades after the last residential school was closed in 1986, the grandchildren of the school’s survivors undergo the same challenges faced by their fore fathers more than a century ago. This is because the native people have not yet fitted in the mainstream culture, thus, they face a lot of discrimination and fewer opportunities to make their lives better. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that the disparity experienced between the indigenous people and the other Canadian population is eliminated in an effort to reduce the long lasting impacts of the residential schools.
References
Miller, J. R. (1996). Shingwauk’s vision: A history of Native residential schools. University of Toronto Press.
Miller, J. R. (2017). Residential schools and reconciliation: Canada confronts its history. University of Toronto Press.
Wilk, P., Maltby, A., & Cooke, M. (2017). Residential schools and the effects on Indigenous health and well-being in Canada—a scoping review. Public health reviews, 38(1), 8.