The Residential School System

http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/home/government-policy/the-residential-school-system.html

This website, through the University of British Columbia (shout out!), is an excellent look at the residential system in BC and Canada. It discusses the purpose of the residential school which was to assimilate and destroy culture.  As the site points out it was to, “kill the Indian in the child.” It stated in the 1880s, with the church assuming the role of educator and forcing theological beliefs on children who were uprooted from their homes.  The site discusses the torment these children faced on a daily basis: abuse, which was physical, psychological, and sexual .  It also outlines the inferior education the children received, often only to grade 5 and preparing the children for a life in agriculture or wood working. It was not until the 1990s that churches began to recognize their part in this destructive ploy.

The site is a great source because it also outlines the ‘need’ for residential schools.  The government of the time believed in order to settle Canada, the Aboriginal population needed to be reformed and the best way to do that was indoctrination at an early age.  They went as far as to make it illegal for First Nations to attend schools which were not residential.  The conditions at the residential school also highlighted the capabilities the government thought Aboriginal children possessed. Work was geared toward practical ability: sewing, carpentry and farming.  Ironically, for a school, it was so unfocused on education that many students only reached grade 5 by 18 years of age.  Many children died to the unsanitary conditions faced at residential schools, yet  the value placed on Aboriginal life was so low the schools continued for a century.

In the late 1950s the government finally began to treat these institutions more like a school and began to hire qualified staff, and the 80 years of mistreatment was swept under the rug.  The worthlessness created by these schools is still in communities today.  As an aside, when St. Joseph’s finally shut down many non-Native peoples had no idea what when on because that implied worthlessness still lingered in 1981.

This site will be very valuable to my project because it outlines why the government felt the need to create residential schools and always demonstrates how the schools created a sense of despair and worthlessness in many Aboriginal communities.  Many Aboriginal people are still reluctant to attend schools and are distrustful of schools due to the horrifying repercussions these schools caused.  I hope to glean from this site some of the overt means of making students ashamed of their culture and some of the not-so-overt means of destroying self worth.

TM