Residential Schools

Image courtesy of Fallen Feather
The residential school system represents an extremely emotional and turbulent period in Canadian history and Canada’s relationship with Aboriginal peoples. The experience of nearly 150 years of removing children from the family was designed to “kill the Indian in the child” and assimilate Aboriginal youth into mainstream European-Canadian culture. Instead, the residential school program contributed to the development of a Aboriginal culture of poverty, suicide, alcoholism, the dismantling of the family unit, and the destruction of the development of parenting skills. The residential school system was designed as a partnership between various Christian organizations and the Government of Canada. Most of the Christian agencies that delivered education and training through the residential school system have been implicated in the widespread child sexual and physical abuse that took place in these schools: criminal convictions have been obtained against some of the perpetrators of these crimes. In 2007, the Government of Canada partnered with numerous Aboriginal organizations in order to start a program of reconciliation and provide counselling to survivors of the Residential School Program. Remember that within the Royal Proclamation of 1763, the Government of Canada assumed the responsibility to provide Aboriginal people with their educational needs. To accomplish this task, the government contracted these educational requirements to a variety of Christian organizations. For both the Canadian government and Christian organizations, this appeared to be a win-win situation. For the Canadian government, its legal obligations were met, the process of assimilation was on track, and the churches provided the service at an economy of cost. For the Christian organizations, the residential school system provided the opportunity to fulfill the goal of bringing non-Christians into the fold of God and civilization. Each fall the Indian Agent, a representative of the Crown, would visit regional Indian Reserves and round up the children and take them to a military-style residential school building complex. Here they were to have their character “redesigned” to fit the European model. The children were not allowed to speak their native languages, have any contact with their family, or practice any aspect of their culture.

Image courtesy of Fallen Feather
Residential School Education The residential school system was designed as a boarding school and was mandatory for Aboriginal youth between the ages of 7 to 15 years of age. No education was offered past grade 9. Students were segregated based on sex, and their cultural practices were disallowed. They were also not allowed contact with their parents. Corporal punishment was the norm for any offense. Days began at 6:00 AM with breakfast and general cleaning. This was followed by chapel time and then two hours of educational instruction. It must be noted that few, if any, of the clerical instructors had any educational training. The afternoon was spent being “civilized” through farming, gardening, cooking, sewing, and cleaning activities. The effects of this “education” were far-reaching: in addition to the many who suffered sexual, physical, and psychological abuse at the hands of those who staffed the schools, hundreds more Aboriginal students died in these schools, largely from tuberculosis.

Image courtesy of Royal BC Museum, BC Archives
The Effects on the Family Unit The systemic cycle of physical and sexual abuse within the residential school system led to the near destruction of the Aboriginal family. It was this destruction of the family that many Aboriginal people feel was the most devastating legacy of the residential school system. Children did not learn how to parent and did not learn basic social skills. Children lost contact with role models within their own culture. Family values and stories were not handed down from one generation to the next. Dependence on unpredictable government funding laid a foundation of poverty and dysfunctional community structures. The government provided services based on economy of cost. Most services were well below what would be considered a Canadian standard. Today, in the early years of the 21st century, Aboriginal families are now slowly regenerating and regaining their former structure. For many Aboriginal communities, today’s nuclear families represent the first such social units in more than 100 years.  
The Culture The first residential school was established in BC in the early 1860s; the last such school closed in the 1980s. In 1997, the Government of Canada admitted the residential school system was part of a federal assimilation policy. In 1998, Canada officially apologized for the tragedy of sexual, physical, and psychological abuses perpetrated at the residential schools. However, it is important to note that throughout the 150-year history of attempted assimilation, Aboriginal people and culture never disappeared. If fact, it can be argued that today, in the early 21st century, there are more Aboriginal people now living in British Columbia than 150 years ago. Also, Aboriginal culture did not disappear. Rather, it has adapted to survive the onslaught from a very aggressive and domineering external culture. To help put this comment into perspective, think of how your great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents lived. Did they live differently than you? These differences represent cultural change in response to such stimuli including technology, environment, and now the global economy.