Tag Archives: residential schools

Module 4: Post 1 – Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds (1879)

Leave a reply

Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald commissioned Nicholas Flood Davin to explore the industrial schools for Indigenous children in the US. Davin did so and wrote his 1879 report: Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds.

Davin’s report speaks favourably of the US Industrial school system noting its success in assimilating Indigenous children into American society. In the report, Davin notes that the US experienced similar concerns as Canada with Indigenous men: “Little can be done with him. He can be taught to do a little at farming, and at stock-raising, and to dress in a more civilized manner, but that is all.” (pg. 2) Davin seems to go on to suggest that the creation of industrial schools allows the government to have greater success at assimilating Indigenous children into the dominant society.

The report strongly supports boarding schools over day schools, noting that in the case of day schools: “the influence of the wigwam was stronger than the influence of the school”  (pg.2).

There is also extensive information on the creation and establishment of an industrial school system in Canada. Davin notes costs associated with the creation and management of the schools and recommends that the government partners with various Christian groups in the running of the schools.

Davin’s report ultimately led to the creation of the residential schools system in Canada.

It is quite remarkable reading this report as I am struck by the author’s feelings of the inferiority of Indigenous peoples, something I am not used to seeing/reading. Also, it is interesting to see a document that was integral in the creation of the residential school system. 

Mod 3:5 Fatty Legs

Leave a reply

Fatty Legs: A True Story is a chapter book geared at middle years students. It is about the experience of one girl at a northern residential school. This book has been used by teachers at my school and in my division to introduce the topic of residential schools. The students have all enjoyed the novel and come out with good discussions.

Module 3 Post #3

Leave a reply

This paper is from the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and deals with resiliency and the legacy of the residential school system. It provides sections pertaining to the distinct impacts on individuals, families and communities – recognising the atrocities inflicted on aboriginals with these forced school systems but also discussing healing and moving forward.

Aboriginal People, Resilience and the Residential School Legacy

Module 3 Post #2

Leave a reply

A paper written by Cheryle Partridge detailing the intergenerational impact of residential schools and her own experiences and the experiences of her family. Cheryle discusses what aboriginal education was like before the residential schools, what it was like during, and what she hopes it will continue as for generations to come.

Residential Schools: The Intergenerational Impacts on Aboriginal Peoples

Module 3 Post #1 Residential Schools and Decolonization

Leave a reply

Looking more into the effects on culture from the impact of residential schools (in general), there are a number of good resources to consider. This article from the Canadian Journal of Law and Society, titled Introduction: Residential Schools and Decolonization, provides a good introduction (as you would expect from the title) to many of the issues that had such a direct impact on the culture of First Nations children.

Canadian Journal of Law and Society
Volume 27, Number 1, 2012

Module 3.4. Legacy of Hope Foundation

Leave a reply

The Legacy of Hope Foundation is an Aboriginal Canadian Foundation that addresses the long-term psychological implications of residential schools Aboriginal generations, both old and new.  The foundation’s main focus is to promote a process of reconciliation and healing in Canada, through a deep understanding of residential schooling issues, and their intergenerational impacts on both indigenous and non-indigenous Canadian people.

The Foundation established a virtual exhibition: http://www.wherearethechildren.ca/. The exhibition offers a Blackboard interactive forum, a map and timeline of the Residential School Era, a “bookshelf” that contains textbooks, a dictionary and a teacher’s guide, a 3D tour of Mohawk Institute Residential School, a “projector” of residential schools’ survivor stories and a museum-like exhibition.

 

Module #3 – Post #5: A.I.R.S. Art Project

Leave a reply

As part of the Truth and Reconciliation Week in Vancouver this past September, survivors of the Alberni Indian Residential School were honoured in a ceremony that formally announced the return of an important link to their past: their art.

The former art teacher at the school had kept approximately 80 pieces of artwork created by students over 40 years ago, which were bequeathed to the University of Victoria upon his death. As part of the TRC initiative, the university set out to locate the surviving artists and their families to return the works to their rightful owners.

As Chief Councillor Jeff Cook acknowledges in his speech, the art classroom was, for many children, the only escape from the regimented schedule and demands of life in a residential school. Considering that many children upon first arriving at a residential school could not speak English (or French), art provided them with an opportunity to express themselves non-verbally. From the collection that the university acquired, several recurring themes and images appear, from depictions of their communities, the land and way of life, to expressing emotions surrounding life in the residential school.

The artwork not only provides us with a greater sense of how children perceived their experiences at residential schools, but as Cook points out, is valuable for the survivors to confront as a means of reconciling their pasts.

Watch the entire ceremony here. The presentation by the University of Victoria and Chief Councillor Jeff Cook begins around the 21:45 mark.

Module 3: Post 5 – Inter-Generational Effects of Residential Schools

Leave a reply

In this interview, Eve Abel and her daughter Krystine discuss the effects that Eve’s time in a residential school has had on each of them.

Eve mentions the physical abuse that she suffered and noted that she was made to feel ashamed of her Indigenous culture and beliefs. She was beaten whenever she spoke her Indigenous language. As a result, Eve can speak a few words today of her Indigenous language, her daughter cannot speak any.

Krystine notes that until she was in university she had very little understanding of or connection to her Indigenous culture and history. It wasn’t until she began attending Aboriginal studies classes that she learned about residential schools and she began to speak with her mother about her experiences.

It is quite poignant to know that Eve attended residential school from ages 7-11, and the impact of those four years is felt long after, into the next generation.

Module 3: Post 4 – The Shingwauk Residential School Centre

Leave a reply

Shingwauk Hall at Algoma University in Sault Ste. Marie is a former residential school. The residential school was open from 1873 – 1970.  Algoma University and The Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association have created The Shingwauk Residential School Centre to raise awareness of the history of Shingwauk Hall.

The Shingwauk school was originally created by the great Ojibway Chief Shingwaukonse. His vision was a cross-cultural school that incorporated traditional Indigenous knowledge with European knowledge. It first opened in 1833 under this vision. By 1873 it had been changed to an Industrial home and later, in 1935, a residential school. Quite a departure from Shingwaukonse’s original vision.

The Shingwauk project began in 1979. It’s purpose is to:

“research, collect, preserve and display the history of residential schools; develop and deliver projects of ‘sharing, healing and learning’ in relation to the impact of the Schools and of individual and community cultural restoration; and accomplish ‘the true realization of Chief Shingwauk’s vision’.”

This project is a partnership between the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association, the National Residential School Survivors’ Society, Algoma University, the Anglican Church, the Shingwauk Education Trust and the Dan Pine Healing Lodge.

This project has created the Residential Schools Centre which works with the University’s library to store, catalogue and display residential school artefacts, photographs and documents.