Residential Schools

Words: 614

Pages: 3

Open Document

Aboriginal Studies

Sofia: Topic One- Residential Schools, and their impact on identity.

Residential schools were government-funded religious schools built to assimilate Aboriginal children to European culture. First Nation, Inuit, and Metis children were taken from their families, stripped of their clothes, and forced to adapt to Christian-Canadian culture. Churches such as the Anglican, Catholic, United, and Presbyterian ran residential schools on a day to day basis. Nuns would abuse, lecture, and rape Aboriginals. They didn’t think of them as being people, there for, treated them worse than animals. The government believed these children needed to become apart of the Canadian culture, and used this as an excuse to disregard their own. How could you value something you know nothing about? The government pushed away the value of Aboriginal culture by neglecting to be educated on it. Their culture and beliefs were simply wrong. To the government, the children still had a chance to be apart of the “best, most relevant,” culture. In 1879, the first residential schools were built, and John A. Macdonald was the prime minister. He and his cabinet gave the power to churches to treat Aboriginal children anyway they …show more content…
For example, Metis people had many traditions. Such as, the Metis Sash, Fiddle Music ceremonies, and Jiggling. All of these are unique, and represent some of their core values. They also dressed a certain way. A skirt, red woolen hat, deerskin pants, and long hooded coat called “capot,” was a very common combination. Men also wore colourful sash around their waist. It was a part of who they were, just as nike and adidas are apart of my culture today. Their language was and is Michif, which is a mixture between French (European) and Cree (Aboriginal). All of Aboriginal groups have their own practices as

Residential Schools

Residential schools have existed since the mid 1850’s when missionaries were setting up schools to educate and Christianise the Aboriginal population. Since then and the last one that closed in 1996, one hundred and fifty residential schools operated across Canada. The main point of these schools was to isolate children from their families and communities, and by doing so eliminating their culture and eventually the aboriginal community in its entirety. It is an efficient tactic to create change…

Words 1026 - Pages 5

Violence In Residential Schools

Oxford Dictionary defines Residential Schools as, “a government supported boarding school for children from American Indian and Inuit communities.” On the other hand, if an elder from one of these communities was asked to about Residential schools, an entirely different definition would have been supplied. The nature of these schools was first sought out to be a way of “civilizing” the Native inhabitants, but instead traumatized the attendees of these so called schools. It is only with the last…

Words 2157 - Pages 9

Essay on Residential Schools

Residential Schools Residential schools began in the 1840s in Markham, Ontario, by the government and the Church. Their official reason for opening was to provide First Nation children with an education and to integrate them into the Canadian society. That is what they told the public, though they later admitted that the true reasons were to remove children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures and to assimilate the children into the, “superior”, European culture. Their…

Words 3578 - Pages 15

Racism In Residential Schools

A residential school is a school only for Aboriginal kids to learn. this exemplifies systemic racism because it involves the government. It was illegal for an Aboriginal person to go to another educational system .The idea of residential school was to take young kids and keep them in a civilized environment. They wanted the Aboriginal kids to adapt to a new western culture and that the whole purpose was to discontinue the Indian Culture. They wanted to erase their culture and abolish the native traditions…

Words 1219 - Pages 5

Deaf Residential Schools

If you had a child that was deaf, would you send them to a residential school or allow them to go to a mainstream school? This is a question a lot of parents wonder. A residential school is a school where students live throughout the week and then go home on the weekends or they live there 7 days a week. They stay overnight in a dorm or housing area. A mainstream school is a school where deaf and or hard of hearing children go to school with people who can hear. These students have to have interpreters…

Words 1010 - Pages 5

Residential Schools In Canada

From 1884 to 1996, it was required of Native children to attend residential schools due to the laws of the Indian Act. Sponsored by the government and established by Catholic churches, the school's main goal was to educate and convert Aboriginal children; essentially forcing them to replace all of their original values and beliefs. Not only did those schools result in at least 3,200 deaths, but also around 150,000 children being taken away from their families. More often than not, the students experienced…

Words 442 - Pages 2

Residential Schools Research Paper

Firstly, residential schools hold a symbolic importance due to the negative impact it had on Natives throughout the 20th century. Overall, the experience of residential schools for most children was negative for various reasons. Children were isolated from their families, abused, and the poor atmosphere left these children to be ill. To begin with, most students were unable to contact their family members; government officials would force or even kidnap Natives to get them to attend these schools. If…

Words 593 - Pages 3

What Is Racism In Residential Schools

At the roots of Saul’s trauma is the racism at the residential schools.Residential schools were the roots of most Indigenous kids at the time. The schools were made as an attempt to erase Indigenous cultures, languages and their identity which made it a place filled with racism.Saul experiences real racism for once through his peers. As he sees a boy say that he doesn't want to change his name because it was his fathers name and the nun said god was their new father and his father Loonie is a heathen…

Words 410 - Pages 2

Geo Essay Residential Schools

Residential Schools: An End of Grief Ms.K.McCrimmon CGC1D7-21 By: Senthuran Senthil Sir Wilfrid Laurier C.I Monday, May 13, 2013 For over a century, more than 150,000 First Nations children in Canada attended residential schools. Aboriginal children across the country were stripped from their families and communities, and they were forced to attend these schools. At residential schools, children experienced a trauma which included emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. These abuses were just…

Words 902 - Pages 4

Annotated Bibliography On Residential Schools

Annotated Bibliography Assignment - Jenna Johnston Residential Schools are a major part of Canada’s history which they are not proud of to this day. These schools were torture for the children attending them. The Canadian Government took many of Indigenous children out of their own homes and forced them to attend these schools; where they were kept away from their families and forbidden to practice their own culture and language. Instead, they were forced to speak in English and if they went against…

Words 1543 - Pages 7