RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS - CURRENT EFFECTS OF SEPARATING INDIGENOUS CHILDREN FROM THEIR FAMILY BY GRACE CLARKE

By Grace Clarke | For Walling’s Blogspot | Posted May 7, 2019

  Bedford Road Collegiate first round dance, Photo courtesy of Bedford Road

Residential schools were schools that were setup by the Canadian government in the1870s. These schools were meant for indigenous children ages 4-18 because the government at the time thought the indigenous way of life was wrong. They wanted to colonize the indigenous people and change their beliefs, convert them to Christianity. Children were removed from their homes, for extended periods of time. They were denied access to their families and communities.  Denied everything they had ever know; their culture.  In residential schools they did not treat students with love the way their parents or family would. They were taught how to cook and clean, but not how-to parent, not how to love. Lots of children were abused in these schools, emotionally and physically. Once the children out grew the school ages they were sent out into the world. People who did not know how to deal with the trauma turned to alcohol and drugs. This effects kids today because it is a cycle that carries on till it is broken by an individual.

When the children were taken from their families and put into the schools they couldn’t be kids. Linda Young is a survivor of residential schools. Linda was sharing her experiences and said one time was she was doing laundry with her group, they started playing around and one of the sisters that worked there hit her in the shoulder with something big and heavy. She now has shoulder problems because of it. Being hit for playing around is not love but abuse.

The generation of children after the schools are being affected because they see their parents abusing alcohol and drugs, so they think that is a way of helping with problems. Other times some kids might turn to gangs for a “family”, “respect” because they don’t have that at home. Some parents who were abused by their parents will abuse their own kids, that includes physically, sexual and emotional. A lot of these parents get caught by family services and the children get placed into foster/child care homes. 90 percent of the children in child care are indigenous in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Foster homes are not that safe of place for children either. First off, you are sending them to a stranger’s home and forcing them to stay there. Children still get abused in these homes. It is so easy to lie and cheat the system. Sending them to another is not going to help in some cases. This all was caused because 100 years of assimilation. They lost their way of life, and beliefs. I know it is not easy to break the cycle of alcohol and drugs. It takes a strong person to do that, to make better for them and their future but we can help make it easier for them.

They lost their way life and beliefs. We can do a lot by recognizing what happened to the indigenous and not repeating history. I think what would help kids now and future generations is if the government stepped in and did something. For them to acknowledge the sad statistics of kids in gangs, in foster care and getting abused. I feel like taking kids away from the families is making things worse. Yes, they may come from bad homes and abuse but that’s still their family. Clearly history shows taking kids from their families does not work that well. The government could help with funding things for kids to go somewhere to feel safe and do activities seven days a week and open late. Another way of call to action is helping them back into their culture they almost lost. Seeing aboriginal elders, going to round dances, sweats, and powwows.

Works Cited
“An Investigation into the Formation and Recruitment Processes of Aboriginal Gangs in Western Canada.” Public Safety    Canada / Sécurité Publique Canada, 14 June 2018

Kyle Edwards. “How First Nations Are Fighting Back against the Foster Care System.” Macleans.ca