Category Archives: Module 2

Module 2 – Weblog 5 – Abuse and Cover-up

Weblog (Mod 2 – WL5)

http://www.nwac.ca/sites/default/files/reports/InstitutionalAbusePublicResponse.pdf

This website from the Native Women’s Association of Canada, in 1992, and it documents how the government refuses to look into residential schools and call for an inquiry.

It focuses on schools which have faced allegations of sexual abuse and the redress as a result. These include: Mount Cashel by the Newfoundland government, the Ontario government’s investigation into the St. Joseph’s Training School for Boys, and the British Columbia government’s inquiry into the Jericho Hill School for the Deaf.

At the time of the documentation, only St. Joseph’s in Williams Lake had an active RCMP investigation into the sexual abuse at the school. Two convictions were handed down, but at that time no inquiry was made into the school, no arranged of compensation offered, and, as the document points out, no real outcry from the non-Native community.

The document points out that in addition to the government refusing to inquire or apologize for the residential school, churches have not been much more forthcoming than the government. Although some churches have apologized, no compensation has been made available.

The four aforementioned schools are discussed, at length, by the article, but it is the Williams Lake school much brought me here. In 1989, Father Harold McIntee was convicted of sexually assaulting 17 boys over a 25 year period at the school. One year later, Brother Doughty (a Roman Catholic official) was convicted of 5 counts of gross indecency and indecent assault, for instances that occurred between 1961 and 1967.

The article also documents a study done by Roland Chrisjohn from Guelph University on the graduates of St. Joseph’s was published and I will try to get my hands on it for my project.

One facet of the article intrigued me about St. Joseph’s. The article states Williams Lake was more concerned about the lumber market that the residential school. I will delve into that a little more and see f there is any substance to that allegation. If so, I wonder if was collective shame that caused that response. A school with that many students and things like that happening over a long time period, the people in the Cariboo had to know, right?

I will use this document in my research to outline the government’s slow response to addressing the concerns of the survivors of residential school and the silence they tried to buy with $16 million dollars.

Moore

Module 2 – Weblog 4 – St. Joseph’s: An Overview

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Weblog (Mod 2 – WL4)

http://irsr.ca/williams-lake-indian-residential-school/

This website is a brief overview of the Williams Lake residential school a.k.a St. Joseph’s Mission.

The school opened in 1886 and operated until 1981, a span of 96 years. Therefore, it is very safe to assume that many families in this region were deeply affected and many families had more than one relative attend. My neighbour’s mother was a student at this school. The stories I have heard are absolutely heart-wrenching.

I do know that 23 counts of sexual abuse were laid against three individuals at the school, including Bishop Hubert O’Connor. However, that will need to be researched further to find corroborating evidence. It does speak volumes to the types of atrocities faced there. In addition, hair was cut and clothes changed upon arrival at the school. Families were also cut apart according to gender. Parent visitation was not allowed, children were allowed one month per summer off. It is also alleged (not in this documentation, but in others I have found) that if Native tongue was spoken it resulted in serious beatings.

At the height of capacity, in the 1950s the school had over 300 students. Things were so deplorable that 2 boys committed suicide and 8 attempted. There are reported grave sites on the school site as under the foundation of a tunnel structure, which gives credence to claims that more deaths occurred during the school’s tenure.

from http://irsr.ca/williams-lake-indian-residential-school/

I don’t think I will use this website in my project, but it did provide some very interesting background. Moreover, realizing the size of the school and its years of operation, so much of the Cariboo must be touched by this tragedy.

Moore

Module 2 – Weblog 3 Residential School Settlement

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Weblog (Mod 2 – WL3)

http://www.residentialschoolsettlement.ca/english_index.html

This website contains the entire decision for the class action lawsuit in which the government and the churches were sued by survivors of the residential schools. The website also contains a claim form so people who were unaware or for hardship reasons can still file a claim. Currently, Mistassini hostels are the focus of the claims.

What makes this site interesting is that it offers monthly updates to the claims put forth so far. The following data is directly from the site:

Update for June 5, 2013:

The Indian Residential Schools Adjudication Secretariat has posted updated statistics including details such as the amount of claims received and total compensation distributed from September 19, 2007 to April 30, 2013:

Total number of claims received:	37,767
Total number of claims resolved:	20,855
Total number of claims in progress:	16,912
Total number of hearings held:	16,968
Total Compensation:	$1,974,000,000

The update can be viewed at www.iap-pei.ca.

The next status update will be available on July 3, 2013.

The website also offers appeal forms to those who may need them. It also lists all the schools that applied to be a part of the process including the school I will focus on: St. Joseph’s.

Cariboo (St. Joseph’s, Williams Lake) St. Joseph’s Missions (Mission)

CARIBOO-ST. JOESPH’S

British Columbia Williams Lake Already Included in Settlement

Agreement

Identified as IRS #34 on CEP and IAP

I plan to use this to show the process the survivors of St. Joseph’s went through and to see if any compensation was given. This is all part of the documentation process of St. Joseph’s.

The formating on this one seems a little wonky when cut and pasted from my documents, must be due to the table…my apologies.

Moore

Module 2 – Weblog 2 The Truth and Reconciliation Commission

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Weblog (Mod. 2 – WL 2)

http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=3

This is the website of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

The TRC has a mandate to learn the truth of what happened in residential schools and to pass that information on to all of Canada. They follow records, interview survivors, talk to operators, essentially gathering all the information they can on the residential school experience.

They were over 130 residential schools located all across Canada, with the last closing in BC in 1984. 1,000s of British Columbians were affected by the tragedy. Often having school aged children taken against their will. In 2008, the Assembly of First Nations and Inuit took the government and churches to court, leading the largest class-action settlement in Canadian history. In June of 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper formally apologized on behalf of the Government of Canada.

In addition to gathering background information, the TRC is also responsible for hosting several national events each year and supporting education around this subject. Recently, the TRC has also supported the Missing Children Research Project. In fact, their mandate is extremely comprehensive.

However, perhaps the best part of this website is the expansive list of websites and links. It connects the user with numerous Aboriginal groups and Government websites to assist in research.

This is definitely a website I plan on using in the project. It will most likely be used to show what the government has done in light of the court cases and to highlight some of the material they found.

Moore

Weblog Module 2 – WL1 – St. Joseph’s memorial

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Weblog (Module 2 – WL 1)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/04/24/bc-st-josepho-memorial.html

This website is from the CBC and discusses the reunion of survivors of the St. Joseph’s residential school (also known as Williams Lake Indian Residential School and Williams Lake Industrial School). Closed in 1981, the school was one of the last operating residential schools in BC. The article calls for plans for a monument for survivors in the spot of the school, which has been torn down and a monument in a Williams Lake park to honour the children that died at this school.

However, there is also a link on the page to a 8 and a half minute radio interview with Andy Brice, who is the great grandson of Peter Henderson Brice, who was hired to be a health official for a smallpox outbreak. He did a 3 year study and found that Residential schools in Ontario were so bad that tuberculosis was found in up to 75% of students. Other suggestions included better nutrition, heating and ventilation.

1922 – ‘Story of a National Crime’ published. It discussed deplorable conditions in Residential Schools that Brice had seen. The pamphlet by Brice, was less than stellarly received.

This story links the deplorable conditions in BC to the deplorable conditions in Ontario and show Residential schools to be a national problem at the turn of the century.

I will use the information in my paper on Residential schools, with a focus on St. Joseph’s , to demonstrate what the city is doing as reparations.

Moore

Mod 2 – Post #5 – Aboriginal Fisheries in BC

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http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/?id=1072

This resource provides an overview of the Aboriginal history of fishing on the Fraser River. This information will come in handy for my final research on traditional ecological knowledge in the Fraser Valley and how salmon is an integral part of ecology. The many issues that arise from fishing disputes is also an important part of history for Aboriginal people in BC.

Alicia

Module 2: Post 5 NSW Aboriginal Education and Consultative Group

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Similar to my Module 2 Post 4 entry, I am using this site as a source for background reading about traditional values. This is a quote from this site:

“In October 2011 the Department of Education and Communities commenced a consultation process with communities and stakeholder groups to develop a strategy to improve outcomes for children and young people in these schools and communities.”

I find this consultation process to be very interesting considering how educational outcomes can possibly be improved. Again, I’m not sure of the extent to which this site will support my paper, but it is proving to be very useful in understanding how different formalized processes can be used to support social development in indigenous populations such as with aboriginals in New South Wales.

AECG

Module 2: Post 4 Share Our Pride

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This is one site I’m using in my research to deepen my understanding of other indigenous cultures, and value important to these cultures. I’m not sure how heavily this site will factor into my final paper, but I find it quite interesting to read about the history of Aboriginal groups in Australia and to lightly compare with First Nations groups in Canada. Links with dreaming and the natural land are two of these types of connections. At this point, I find the reading to be the most important of this process, and this is one site that is helping me to gain a wider scope of how transmission of knowledge can occur through technological means.

This quote is from the section ‘Culture’: “Culture represents the ways of living that are built up by groups and transmitted from one generation to another,” and this transmission is what is at the core of my research.

Share Our Pride

Module 2: Post 3 First Nations Pedagogy Online

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I’ve been reading this site to learn more about storytelling and the importance of sharing in safe, patient environments. As I prepare for my research paper, I need to learn more about the importance and history of storytelling before I can look at design features related to storytelling in modern technologies and/or platforms. This site allows me to do that, particularly with the section related to ‘Circle talk’.

I find the procedures included on this site to be very helpful in understanding the relationship between storytelling and the individual, and the natural world.

First Nations Pedagogy Online

Module 2 – Post 4: Place-Based Learning and knowing: critical pedagogies grounded in Indigeneity, Jay Johnson

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Johnson, J. (2012). Place-based learning and knowing: Critical pedagogies grounded in indigeneity. GeoJournal. 77(6). pp. 829-836

Subsequent to the Gruenewald article documented in Post 3, Johnson draws heavily on Gruenewald’s ideation of critical pedagogy of space and seeks to further develop the concepts space, place and placelessness before firmly linking indigeneity to critical place-based pedagogy. As far back as the enlightenment, Western traditions have sought to separate culture from nature, and as a result the ensuing culture and system of knowledge has had placelessness as a primary component. Arguably, this disconnection from place has also lead to Western science self-stated superiority over indigenous knowledge and science that is firmly rooted, and even stored, in the places, environment and landscapes in which it was developed. Furthermore, Johnson explains that modern (Western) society creates a “thin” layer of meaning making in places, as they are converted to resource spaces for capitalistic and colonial purposes. But for that thin meaning to exist, it is necessary to remove the meaning that is pre-existant and often significant cultural histories and moralities.

To reconcile this transformation of place to space, Johnson seeks to impart the decolonialization and rehabitation of critical place-based learning, be in a state of continual active engagement with the places, and rediscover their indigenous stories, histories, narratives and languages associated with them.