scholarly journals Witnessing the Unspoken Truth: On Residential School Survivors' Testimonies in Canada

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 755
Author(s):  
Kamelia Talebian Sedehi
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
Residential School ◽  
Indian Act ◽  
Indigenous Children ◽  
Canadian Culture

Residential schools functioned from 1876 to 1996 in Canada in order to assimilate Indigenous children to Euro- Canadian culture. By implementation of Indian Act (1876), the Indigenous children were taken away from their parents and sent to these schools. The trauma that these kids underwent as a result of physical, mental and sexual abuse at these residential schools has not been discussed by the survivors for many years. Therefore, the current research will focus on ten testimonies by the survivors of residential schools which have been selected from YouTube in order to indicate how their school days experience was narrated to the listener. The survivors of residential schools were witnesses of those incidents and they need a listener to vocalize what remained unspoken for long. The concept of trauma by Judith Herman and testimony and witnessing by Laub and Felman will be discussed while listening to these testimonies by the survivors.

scholarly journals Residential Schools in Canada: History, Healing and Hope

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 212
Author(s):  
Glynn Sharpe
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Drug Addiction ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Traditional Healing ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
Residual Effects ◽  
Residential School ◽  
Self Worth ◽  
Prescribed Curriculum ◽  
Canadian Culture

Residential Schools in Canada were created to assimilate native children into Canadian culture. Native traditions, languages and lifestyles were systematically obliterated via prescribed curriculum, punitive educational practices and rampant physical, emotional, spiritual and sexual abuse inflicted upon them. The lingering effects of such atrocities (alarmingly high suicide rates, alcohol and drug addiction and feelings of negative self-worth) have plagued subsequent generations of Aboriginal people in Canada. A residential school survivor’s testimonial helps contextualize the horrors experienced by thousands of children. The paper concludes with the steps undertaken by native groups across Canada that hope to address, via traditional healing methods, the residual effects of such a legacy of pain.

scholarly journals Canadian Identity and Canada’s Indian Residential School Apology

eTopia ◽  
2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Stabler
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
Residential School ◽  
Canadian Society ◽  
Canadian Identity ◽  
The Social ◽  
Indigenous Children ◽  
State Relations ◽  
Do So

Canada’s more than century-long Indian Residential Schools system transferred Indigenous children from their homes and communities to state- and church-run schools with the goal offacilitating their assimilation into Canadian society. In 2008, Canada delivered an official apology for its role in the system and its legacy. This apology has the potential to heal Indigenous/Settler-state relations, but to do so it must transform existing relationships and further simple coexistence as a reconciliation mechanism. The social construction of Canadian identity as lawful and benevolent may present a barrier in achieving these goals and may ultimately hinder meaningful reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

2. Dispossessions

2020 ◽  
pp. 25-37
Author(s):  
Donald Wright
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Land Rights ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
Land Sharing ◽  
Cultural Genocide ◽  
Nations People ◽  
Indian Act ◽  
Indigenous Children ◽  
First Nations People

‘Dispossessions’ covers the exploitation of Indigenous Canadians who saw the treaties they signed as land-sharing agreements while the European settlers interpreted them as selling the land outright. Groups with no treaties, like the European-Indigenous Metis, were particularly vulnerable. Residential schools for Indigenous children provided opportunities, but also played a part in cultural genocide. The Indian Act, an attempt to solve the problem on the government’s terms, dictated who could identify as Indian. Some communities and individuals have succeeded in reclaiming their land, rights, and histories, but life is still challenging for many Indigenous or First Nations people.

Squaring the Circle: How Canada is Dealing with the Legacy of Its Indian Residential Schools Experiment

2000 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-265
Author(s):  
Pamela O'Connor
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Transformation ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
Social Costs ◽  
Indian Children ◽  
Squaring The Circle ◽  
Indian Residential Schools ◽  
The Social ◽  
Compulsory Attendance ◽  
Indigenous Children ◽  
Abuse And Neglect

Canada, like Australia, is belatedly confronting a problem that has long been denied and ignored. Each country is now reckoning the social costs of past policies which sought to achieve the forced assimilation of indigenous children. In Canada this policy was mainly implemented through laws requiring the compulsory attendance of Indian children at school. Some 100,000 children were directed to church-operated residential schools where their cultural transformation could be effected in isolation from their families and the outside world. That isolation left them highly vulnerable to abuse and neglect.

scholarly journals Model Residential School Education to Scheduled Caste Pupils in Kerala

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-36
Author(s):  
P M Rejimon ◽  
R Smitha
Keyword(s):  
Compulsory Education ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
Caste System ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Residential School ◽  
Caste Development ◽  
Education Act ◽  
The Government ◽  
Daily Wage ◽  
The Right

There are about forty lakh scheduled caste people in Kerala. Most of them are poor and daily wage workers. The socio-economic backwardness of scheduled caste people is a historically determined outcome of a caste system in India. Education is the only way for them to get out of this historical whirlwind of economic deprivation, denial of rights and social exclusion. The Government of India passed The Right to Education Act in 2010 and it ensures “free and compulsory education” for all children aged 6 to 14. The government of Kerala has introduced many innovative programs to provide education for scheduled caste pupils in the state. “Model Residential School” owned and managed by the Scheduled Caste Development Department of The Government of Kerala, is one of such successful initiatives. Model Residential Schools take special care to cater to the educational needs of the underprivileged children and help them to attain quality education. In this article, the investigators explore the role played by the model residential schools in the educational development of scheduled caste pupils in Kerala and particularly in solving the burning issue of a high rate of dropouts among scheduled caste pupils.

scholarly journals Reconciliation and Conflict: A Review of Practice

2011 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 831
Author(s):  
Emily Snyder
Keyword(s):  
Race Relations ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Residential School ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Indian Residential Schools ◽  
Ongoing Dialogue ◽  
Concurrent Events

In this article I provide a review of two connected events.  The first is the conference "Prairie Perspectives on Indian Residential Schools, Truth and Reconciliation," which was held in June 2010 in Winnipeg, Manitoba.  This conference was just one of many concurrent events taking place at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's first national event.  Specific themes and aspects of the conference are covered here.  Secondly, I parallel my discussion of the conference to my experiences with the national event - experiences can be complex and do not happen in isolation from the broader context around them. Overall, I argue that while the conference and the national event made some meaningful contributions to ongoing dialogue about reconciliation in Canada, it is clear that understanding how to deal with and discuss the conflict that arises from discussions of residential school, "race relations," and reconciliation more broadly is an ongoing learning experience.  I offer some recommendations concerning how conflict could be better dealt with at future conferences and national events.  Reconciliation processes can be more effective if there is not only space for dissent but, most importantly, that mechanisms are in place for encouraging productive discussions about the conflict that arises and that will continue to arise.

Introduction: Residential Schools and Decolonization

2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemary Nagy ◽  
Robinder Kaur Sehdev
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
School Experience ◽  
Aboriginal Peoples ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Residential School ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Government Of Canada ◽  
Poor Ventilation ◽  
Settler Society

“Home” to more than 150,000 children from the 1870s until 1996, the residential school system was aimed at “killing the Indian in the child” and assimilating First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children into white settler society. It was, in short, a genocidal policy, operated jointly by the federal government of Canada and the Catholic, Anglican, United, and Presbyterian Churches. Children as young as four years old were torn from their families and placed in institutions that were chronically underfunded; mismanaged; inadequately staffed; and rife with disease, malnutrition, poor ventilation, poor heating, neglect, and death. Sexual, emotional, and physical abuse was pervasive, and it was consistent policy to deny children their languages, their cultures, their families, and even their given names. While some children may have had positive experiences, many former students have found themselves caught between two worlds: deprived of their languages and traditions, they were left on their own to handle the trauma of their school experience and to try to readapt to the traditional way of life that they had been conditioned to reject. Life after residential school has been marred for many by alcohol and substance abuse, cycles of violence, suicide, anger, hopelessness, isolation, shame, guilt, and an inability to parent.First Nations leader Phil Fontaine catalysed the struggle for redress in 1990 when he stunned Canada by speaking about his residential-school experience. The second major catalyst was the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) of 1991–1996, which broadly exposed the horrors of residential schools to Canadians and called for a public inquiry.

scholarly journals Disrupting the Continuities Among Residential Schools, the Sixties Scoop, and Child Welfare: An Analysis of Colonial and Neocolonial Discourses

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly A. McKenzie ◽  
Colleen Varcoe ◽  
Annette J Browne ◽  
Linda Day
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Recent Change ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
The State ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Indigenous Children ◽  
The Sixties ◽  
Policies And Practices

In Canada, it is estimated that 3 times as many Indigenous children are currently in the care of the state compared to when the residential schools’ populations were at their peak. It is imperative that action be taken. This article explores the continuities among residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, and child welfare in Canada today. In particular, we examine how colonial and neocolonial discourses operate through and justify these policies and practices. We propose nine policy recommendations, which aim to transform child welfare and support Indigenous families to care for their children. Although transformative policy change is unlikely within this neocolonial and neoliberal climate, the recent change in federal leadership has made it more possible to move these policy recommendations forward.

scholarly journals Family Factors and Academic Achievement: A Comparative Study of Residential School Children and Rural Government School Children

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 190
Author(s):  
S. Ashwini Kumari ◽  
Saritha Devi ◽  
K. Mayuri
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
School Children ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
Residential School ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Government Schools ◽  
Government School ◽  
Rural Government ◽  
Parental Contribution

<div><p>The study compares the effects of family factors contributing to the High Academic Achievement of Private Residential School Children and Rural Government School Children. Children studying in selected private residential schools and rural government schools in IX and X classes with highest ranks (first 3-4 ranks) in the previous year were selected. Total sample comprised 240 children, 120 from each setting, 60 from IX class and 60 from X class. An Interview schedule was developed by the investigator for the children to know their perceptions about family contributing factors. The study concluded that children of Private Residential Schools and Rural Government Schools were average and similar in their perceptions regarding parental contributions for their Academic Achievement. High Parental Aspirations Expectations helped in high achievement in both groups but comparatively high in Private Residential School children. Whereas contribution of Siblings Relationship and Assistance of others was high in Rural Government School children and average in Private Residential School children. Coming to the gender and age variations in family contributing factors, there was significantly high parental contributions for Academic Achievement of boys than girls in private Residential schools and higher age group children of Rural Government schools have significantly more parental contribution for their Academic Achievement than lower age group children. Achievement in English was highly positively correlated with family’s Economic status in Private Residential schools. There was significant positive correlation between achievement in mathematics and parental contribution, achievement in science and Parental Aspirations in Rural Government School children.</p></div>

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