The Residential Schools
Introduction
The residential schools involved a network of boarding schools for the Indigenous Canadian population (Miller, 1996). The school system was funded by the Canadian government and run by strict Christian churches. Their purpose was to eliminate the ‘Indian culture’ from the indigenous people. The schools had two primary objectives. The first was to remove and isolate Indian kids from their families, homes, cultures, and traditions. The other objective was to assimilate the isolated children into mainstream Canadian culture. The aims were founded on the notion that Aboriginal cultures were inferior and 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 residential schools.
What Led to the Residential Schools?
When the Europeans settlers migrated to Canada, they came with the belief that their civilization was the center of people’s achievements. They had the assumption that all the people should adopt their civilization over the world, and any society other than the Europeans was inferior to them (Miller, 2017). On settling in Canada, they interpreted the social and cultural differences between the Aboriginal people and their culture as 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 factor that led to the creation of residential schools (Miller, 2017). Being the responsibility of the 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 well as 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 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 a 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 join a residential school (Miller, 2017). It became prohibited for the indigenous children to go to 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 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 mealtime (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 were not given the same education as the other Canadians in the public schools because the residential schools were insufficiently funded, and teaching was poor (Miller, 1996). They were mainly taught the basic practical skills which could not help them a lot in society. The boys were taught about a blacksmith, farming, and carpentry while the girls were taught sewing, cooking, and laundry. Besides, the children only attended classes part-time and spend the rest of their 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 students’ labor. Learning was so poor in the residential schools that some students attained 18 while in grade 5 (Wilk, Maltby & Cooke, 2017). These students were forced away from school with little education to help them cope with the needs of 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 members 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 prevalent 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. This kind of abuse, coupled with poor sanitation, overcrowding, poor healthcare, and inadequate food, leads to a shockingly high death rate in the schools. In 1907, Bryce P. H, the government health inspector, revealed that 24% of formerly healthy indigenous kids were dying in 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 forefathers 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.