Residential School Experience

http://pimatisiwin.com/uploads/291994116.pdf

The document is a doctoral thesis outlining the idea of a specific post-traumatic stress disorder called the “residential school syndrome.”  The question posed is the damage done from residential schools or colonization as a whole.  The author was a psychologist at a residential school in 1991 and 1992. He found many youth suffered emotional problems following the closure of the school .

The document discusses the history of residential schools, following the Riel rebellion. This I found very interesting, as I had previously never thought there was a link between the two, but it makes a lot of sense.  It also discusses the way students were ‘herded’ and separated at the school, often from family members. It also discusses the way students were given numbers as a way of further stripping culture. No names, just numbers.

It discusses a 1991 study based in Williams Lake in which 89 of 187 adults admitted to sexual abuse, the interesting thing to note is that 60 also refused to answer the question.

It also discusses the way in which the school not only tried to change the culture of students, but change the way they viewed culture as well.  It discusses the number of disorders many survivors have individually, but also the damage done to the communities as a whole.   The article documents, through interviews, some problems facing some survivors, including poverty, violence, and substance abuse.

The article offers suggestions for future study, but does determine that residential school syndrome does exist and affects people to this day.

I will use this article more for its bibliography than anything. I am in the process of trying to track down the research from 1991 in William’s Lake that is documented. My hopes are to see the results first hand, so I may extrapolate the data myself.

TM