A Legacy of Assimilation and Abuse Residential Schools A Legacy of Assimilation and Abuse

The Legacy of Residential Schools By Bernard Schissel and Terry Wotherspoon “...the history of the relations between Aboriginal peoples and formal education in Canada is largely a history of cultural genocide.....Canada’s First Nations peoples were in the way of the relentless onrush of capitalist and industrial expansion.”

Forced Residential School – Part of the Indian Act 1876 As of 1894: children were forcibly removed from their homes and put in residential schools for 10 months of the year, usually from the age of 5 or 6 until they were 16. Forced Residential School – Part of the Indian Act 1876

Students transported like cattle Children were forcibly taken from their homes Transported by cattle truck over long distances No child was ever told where they were going, for how long, or why Students transported like cattle

The aim of Residential schools was to assimilate First Nations people First Nations Children forced to attend Residential Schools Residential School Mission was to strip these children of their identity and pride in who they were The aim of Residential schools was to assimilate First Nations people

Tactics used to strip children of their identity Forbidding children to speak their native tongue Forbidding students to speak with siblings Telling children that they were “dirty, ugly Indians” Cutting of their hair Providing each student with a number that they were addressed by for the next decade Torture and humiliation

Failed Schools System 60-80 per cent of Aboriginal children in federal residential schools failed to advance past Grade 3 This largely due to the fact that so much time was spent on religious indoctrination and using the children as labourers

Students used as Slave Labour Aboriginal children in residential schools were sent to work on farms and in domestic situations as seasonal free labour. Offset the cost of running the school Hard work forced children into submission Students used as Slave Labour

Residential School Teachers Both governments and churches realized that qualified teachers were expensive Federal government provided minimal funding for residential schools qualified teachers were unaffordable

Residential School Teachers Hired incapable teachers who would not be able to gain employment else ware All teachers members of the clergy- most educated and could impose Christian believes in FN children

Many clerical teachers were pedophiles and/or physically abusive 1000s of children sexually assaulted by teachers and administration