Residential Schools

Hi LINC 7 Students,

Here are some great short videos on residential schools.

First, the government propaganda film made in 1955 describes how "great" the schools were. This is just two and a half minutes long.

Next, the real pain and suffering caused by the schools is described in this video. It's 4 minutes long.

Finally, here's a video with a song soundtrack and photographs with captions (2:39).

Alcoholism and drug abuse were common ways that First Nations survivors of residential schools have used to cope with their pain. Many First Nations people died in these schools and many committed suicide after attending the schools.

This is indeed Canada's "dirty little secret".

The last residential school closed in 1996.

Here's the link to the Prime Minister's apology in 2008.

STEPHEN HARPER:
"I stand before you today to offer an apology to former students of Indian residential schools. The treatment of children in these schools is a sad chapter in our history.

For more than a century, Indian residential schools separated over 150,000 aboriginal children from their families and communities.

In the 1870s, the federal government, partly in order to meet its obligations to educate aboriginal children, began to play a role in the development and administration of these schools.

Two primary objectives of the residential school system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture.
These objectives were based on the assumption that aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal. Indeed, some sought, as was infamously said, "to kill the Indian in the child".

Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country. One hundred and thirty-two federally-supported schools were located in every province and territory, except Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

Most schools were operated as joint ventures with Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian and United churches.
The Government of Canada built an educational system in which very young children were often forcibly removed from their homes and often taken far from their communities.
Many were inadequately fed, clothed and housed. All were deprived of the care and nurturing of their parents, grandparents and communities.

First nations, Inuit and Métis languages and cultural practices were prohibited in these schools.
Tragically, some of these children died while attending residential schools, and others never returned home."