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The Canadian Residential School Genocide - Short History Documentary
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from the 1800s until the 1990s the
canadian government funded and ran a
number of residential schools from the
outset the goal was to educate the
children of the indigenous people in
ways deemed more civilized and to
assimilate them into western culture
children were taken away from their
homes and kept away from their parents
their language and their culture in a
bid to destroy all trace of their way of
life what happened to these children has
left deep scars in the communities
ruined countless lives and resulted in
the deaths of an estimated 6 000
children and many of them buried in
unmarked graves in today's video we will
discuss the reasons behind such schools
what the survivors experienced and the
steps taken to address this historical wrong
wrong
prior to the european settlement the
indigenous peoples of canada were
organized into hundreds of distinct
territories known as the first nations
the implementation of the residential
schools can be traced back to early
missionary schools
these church-run institutions were
designed to civilize the native
populations a view based on colonial
imperialism and cultural supremacy this
was to be achieved by indoctrinating the
children into european and christian
ways of living with the goal of
assimilating them into a white society
these schools were pushed in the early
1800s in tandem with the other attempts
to pull the indigenous populations away
from their nomadic lifestyles such as
encouraging agriculture
this approach was formalized in 1844 in
a report from the bago commission
amongst many other matters pertaining to
the indigenous people it made
recommendations to control indian
affairs identifying that this could be
achieved through the assimilation and
education of native children
many of the recommendations were
codified in the indian act of 1857
which encroached on many aspects of the
indigenous people's lives with the goal
to westernize the first nations it also
provided government funding to the
catholic and anglican missionary schools
the canadian government took inspiration
from the industrial schools for
indigenous children in the united states
and began to take control of the
missionary schools and formally
established the residential schools in
1883 though in many instances they were
still run by the church as stated before
the goal of the residential schools was
to eradicate all aspects of the
indigenous people's culture by taking
the youth of the generation and
separating them from their homes
families and traditions on arrival
students had their hair cut short they
were dressed into uniforms designed to
westernize them and very often they were
referred to by numbers their daily
routine was strictly controlled by
stringent timetables all of the first
nation languages were banned whilst boys
and girls were kept in the same
institutions they were kept apart even
brothers and sisters were separated in
this manner with often violent
punishments for mixing
visits from family were heavily
restricted with children rarely allowed
to leave for the holidays or breaks
many of the parents would often camp
outside the school in hopes of seeing
their children but the past system that
kept the first nation peoples on the
reserves heavily restricted this and for
many of their parents it wasn't even an
option as their children were often sent
hundreds of miles away
whilst children were permitted to write
letters to their parents letters would
be screened so that the news leaving the
institutions was hidden although they
were referred to as residential schools
the level of education provided was
minimal supplies would be surplus from
the schools for europeans and the
teachers often lacked adequate training
and motivation
instead the children were taught
practical western skills for girls
education focused on homely duties
cooking doing the laundry and how to
look after the home
for boys focus was on carpentry
agriculture and metalworking in addition
to their training the children were
expected to help run the schools
this would be having the children run
maintenance or have them grow their own
food to eat these initiatives were
designed to cut costs and have the
institutions as self-reliant as possible
this was also at the expense of the
children's formal education meaning when
they left at 18 years old they would
leave with little more than a primary
level of education
whilst the separation of the children
can be seen as bad enough the horrendous
treatment of the first nation children
only makes the residential schools that
much worse they were often called dirty
or stupid or no good unless they
committed to the assimilation process
corporal punishment was seen as the
standard beatings for using their
indigenous language offer engaging in
ways that were seen contrary to
assimilation with a norm
even just talking about traditions or
culture was to be punished some
survivors even reported having needles
shoved into their tongues for speaking
their native language
more often than not such beatings were
done in front of other children as a
means to instill the consequences of
engaging in their culture there are even
reports of the children having to engage
in violently punishing each other for
infractions as minor as wetting the bed
s.a of the children by those working at
the institutions was unfortunately a
regular occurrence it is estimated that
around 5000 of these individuals
committed serious sa against minors
under their care
many of the schools were run by churches
which operated in the same manner seen
around the world where those responsible
were protected by the culture of secrecy
and cover-ups very often they would just
move to another institution without punishment
punishment
it is estimated that between 50 and 70
percent of their children were subjected
to some form of sa
due to these horrific conditions the
death rates of those at the residential
schools were much higher than the
national average in 1907 a government
medical inspector named peter henderson
bryce reported that between 15 and 25
percent of the previously healthy
indigenous children across canada who
are dying whilst at the residential schools
schools
this however does not reflect those ill
children who were sent home to die as
was the common practice
bryce reported that the children were
not given sufficient food and were
living in squared conditions and denied
proper medical treatment whilst he
suggested a number of improvements his
report was never published by the
canadian authorities and no improvements
were made this attitude of the
government being well aware of the
conditions yet being unwilling to make
changes was par for the course for the
duration of the residential school
system even as the residential school
system slowly wound down other methods
are seen to have been employed to
assimilate the indigenous children from
the 1960s to the 1980s thousands of
children were taken from their homes and
placed with white foster homes in what
is referred to as the 60s scoop
whilst indigenous children made up
around 5 of the population they
represented 20 of all children in care
in some territories the number would be
as high as 70 percent many of the
children placed into foster care would
never return to their parents due to the
amendments in the indian act the 60s
scoop particularly affected single
mothers as they were not allowed to live
with their children on the reservations
it became common practice that newborn
babies were taken from their mothers a
judicial inquiry was launched in the
1980s headed by judge edwin kimmelman
which found quote
the term best interest of the child had
been wrought with cultural bias in a
system dominated by white middle-class
workers boards of directors
administrators lawyers and judges they
also alleged that in the application of
the legislation there were many factors
which were crucially important to the
native people which had been ignored
misinterpreted or simply not recognized
by the children welfare system
by the 1990s the residential school
system was in the process of being
completely wound down
with the last school closing in 1996
but also in the 1990s began a major push
for recognition of the crimes at this
point entire generations of indigenous
people had experienced the same trauma
with older relatives coming to grips
with the fact the younger generations
had faced what they had often in the
same schools this can perhaps be best
explained by chief george gurin he said
i tried very hard not to cry when i was
being beaten and i can still just turn
off my feelings and i'm a lucky man many
of the men my age either didn't make it
ended their lives or died violent deaths
or alcohol got them and it wasn't just
my generation my grandmother who's in
her late 90s to this day it's just too
painful for her to talk about what's
happened at her school
on the 30th of october 1990 phil
fontaine the head of the assembly of the
monotober chiefs gave a televised
interview where he explained what he and
many others had experienced
this was perhaps the first public
explanation by a survivor of the
residential homes and hope to encourage
more survivors to begin the healing and
reconciliation process since then there
have been concerted efforts by both the
indigenous people and the canadian
government to address these crimes
in 2006 the indian residential school
settlement agreement was reached this
agreement established compensation for
the survivors of the schools and set up
the truth and reconciliation commission
despite delays and issues of leadership
the commission was able to compile
thousands of testimonies and obtain
around 1 million government documents on
how the schools were run
but one of the darkest projects
established by the commission was the
missing children project in 1917 the
department of indian affairs ceased
recording the deaths of children under
their care
since the 1990s countless unmarked
graves have been uncovered on or near
the sites of the former schools the vast
number of those who died were victims of tuberculosis
tuberculosis
exacerbated by the poor conditions
in 2021 a large number of unmarked
graves were uncovered prompting more
searches at the sites of the former
schools this renewed public interest has
led to 1400 unmarked graves of children
being uncovered in 2021 alone
there can be no doubt as to the aims of
the residential school system from its
outset until the 20th century those in
charge used the schools to destroy and
fragment the indigenous way of life
one notable example of such a mindset
can be seen in a quote from duncan
campbell scott scott was a deputy
minister of indian affairs and was in
charge of the residential school system
from 1913 to 1932. in 1920 he is quoted
as saying i want to get rid of the
indian problem i do not think as a
matter of fact that the country ought to
continuously protect a class of people
who are unable to stand alone our
objective is to continue until there is
not a single indian in canada that has
not been absorbed into the body politic
the damage done to the indigenous people
of canada by these policies has been catastrophic
catastrophic
entire generations have been affected
but it is important to remember this is
but one of many attempts to destroy the
traditional way of life the motivations
were to destroy a culture deemed
inferior by the european settlers and
continued to be a policy for hundreds of
years adopted by the canadian government
there are many that believe the
residential schools in particular
constitute a genocide notably the
definition of forcibly transferring
children with the goal to destroy a culture
culture
this is still an ongoing and developing
story with more unmarked graves to be
uncovered and bodies to be identified
and returned home
i will be including links in the
description to the stories of the
survivors i would strongly advise you to
take the time to listen to a few to
better understand what these people
endured as children it is a difficult
watch but one necessary for us all to
understand the consequences of such
policies not only on the individuals but
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