1. Residential Schools in Canada
Canada in the 1950’s

2. Considered by some scholars as a cultural genocide
Compensation for physical and sexual abuse sought
Tool of control, exploitation, and destruction
Attempt to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture
Funded by Can. G’ment, admin’d by Christian churches
Based on paternalistic sentiment (economically and religiously)

3. Education system Indigenous Education (I.E)
“experiential, informal learning that was integrated with life”
Preparation for life
Looking, listening, learning
Western Education = preparation for labor force
Schooling was a mix of practial skills and academic work
“practical skills” essentially unpaid labor

4. Academic progress limited
Seen as a necessary evil by many aboriginal parents
Moral justification – can’t survive in society without education
Some saw it as a moral crusade

5. Impact Over impact: destructive Unbearable for Indigenous students
An education system training students for neither world
Ultimate purpose:
Destroy Indigenous culture
Transform its children into members of the industrial workforce

6. Result Indigenous parents didn’t want to send their children
Became mandatory in 1894
Inadequate facilities
Poor health of the students
Paternalistic system lasted until 1945

7. Non-residential schooling was allowed
Integration and assimilation continued
1967, Hawthorn report: “helping children overcome their “Indianness”
Last federally operated residential school closed in 1996 (Gordon Residential School, SK)
Last BC residential school closed in 1984