Aboriginal People's Life

Residential schools were viewed as a way to refine the Aboriginal population and keep children from keeping their language and their cultural traditions. The purpose of residential schools was to civilize the Aboriginal people and to make them useful and good members of society with strict punishments for any of their wrong doings. Richard Pratt is the person who founded the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and he said “you must kill the Indian in him; to save the man”. (Kill the Indian in him) The goal of residential schools was to combine the Aboriginals into white society when they were children since they were much more gullible. My research paper will focus on the residential schools and will contend that the Canadian government and churches committed genocide against the Aboriginal population in an attempt to eliminate the Aboriginal culture.

From the late 1800’s to 1996 more than 100,000 aboriginal children attended residential schools in Canada. At a majority of these government operated schools there were reports of emotional, physical, sexual and spiritual abuse along with punishment for cultural activities. Residential schools were implemented to liberate aboriginal people from their savage ways in order for them to survive in the modernizing society.1 To a majority of the current Canadian population, impacts of residential schooling are a part of a distant past, disassociated from today’s events, this misconception. Long lasting impacts as a result of residential schooling include minimal education leading to poverty, stigmatization by the non-aboriginal public, abuses of aboriginal rights in areas such as land and the environment and the growing loss of Indigenous cultures in younger generations. With the continuing misconception of the history and lasting impact of residential schools conflict between Indigenous people and the Canadian Government has not ceased, but increased.

The impact of colonization on First Nations peoples in Canada is unsurpassable, regarding every aspect of Aboriginal life and well-being. Throughout Canadian history, the government has been aiming to assimilate and annihilate Aboriginal people by way of racist policies, ethnocentric institutions, discriminatory laws and destructive capitalist behaviours. Because of this, Aboriginal people have suffered many losses, both physically and culturally. One of the main perpetrators of enacting this loss is the education system. The education system in Canada has and continues to threaten the relationship First Nations peoples have with the land. The connection First Nations peoples have with the land is crucial to their cultures, traditions, ceremonies and beliefs. Colonization and colonialism jeopardize this relationship and that is what this essay will address.

The Aboriginal peoples of Canada had gone through many situations to get to where they are today with their education system. Pain, sorrow, doubt, and hope are all feelings brought to mind when thinking about the history and the future of Aboriginal education. By taking a look at the past, anyone can see that the right to education for Aboriginal peoples has been fought about as early as the 1870s. This is still is a pressing issue today. Elder teachings, residential, reserve and post-secondary schools have all been concerning events of the past as well as the present. Though education has improved for the Aboriginal peoples of Canada, there are still many concerns and needs of reconciliation for the past to improve the future.

The First Nations children were greatly affected by the residential schools, as it left them physically and emotionally damaged from the trauma of being isolated from their families and cultural values; being abused (physically, verbally and sexually) while also being discriminated against, which had lasting effects. Although there were many other tribes who were also neglected, such as the metis and the units, my focus will be on the First Nations boys and girls who were affected by the residential schools and how it continues to affect them in today 's society. Throughout this essay, I will be proving examples and research to show what the residential schools were followed by what type of effects it had on the boys and girls who were forced to attend the schools.

Usually, the schools were built in areas where they were far away from the Aboriginal homes, which therefore cut off ties with family and community influences. In these residential schools, children were stripped of their identity of their heritage where they were forbidden to speak their native language and where only English was allowed to be spoken; not allowed to wear their native clothing, this caused children the loss of their belief in their traditions of their native culture due to not being able to put them in practice because they were the “Other” which is considered inferior (rel after 304). The most horrible things of this residential school if the children did speak their native language or did anything native such as rituals they were punished. The Aboriginal children went through a cruel amount of abuses through emotional, physical and sexual which are life threatening to the children, this is considered a scaring and impacted many Aboriginal people with repercussions of the loss of

Residential schools were a normal aspect of Aboriginal people’s lives in the 19th and 20th century. The purpose of a residential school was to convert Aboriginal children to Christianity and to assimilate them into Western culture. They were operated through the Canadian government and the church. Aboriginal children were forcibly taken from their parents and put into a school, full-time. They were mistreated which led to problems that still afflict the Aboriginal population of Canada today. Many Aboriginal people want the Canadian government to recognize the inhumane and heinous acts that have been done and want compensation. The imposition of residential schools has greatly impacted the Aboriginal population which resulted in many repercussions

In this paper, I will examine the issue of Indian residential schools and, ultimately, will argue that while it may have been the custom to impose colonialist and imperialist ideals in the late 1800s and early 1900s, in today’s society we view what occurred as nothing less than inhumane, an act which must be remembered as a dark shadow that for decades – and still today - clouds relations between aboriginals and the Canadian government. To understand the complexity of this matter I will discuss why this policy was implemented; I will look at the goals and the methods used to achieve these outcomes; I will discuss indigenous response to this amendment of the Indian Act; and finally, I will look at the effects this action had on indigenous peoples and their relationship with the country. It is important to know that while my opinion is clear in that I see the creation and implementation of Indian residential schools as an evil action with no redeeming qualities, there are others – as recently as Conservative Senator Lynn Beyak on March 7, 2017, who spoke out in favour of those who worked at the schools – who do not agree with my point of view . These polarized viewpoints, often times skewed by emotions and poorly informed opinions, add to the complexity of the matter, particularly in moving forward and achieving reconciliation with indigenous

The legacy of historical globalization on the Aboriginal community is still a very much relevant issue in Canada. Although historical globalization interconnected different countries and nations, it gave birth to imperialism and colonialism. As a result of this, legislations such as the Indian Act was implemented. The Indian Act was passed by the Canadian government in 1876 in an attempt to assimilate First Nations into mainstream society. In an attempt to erase the “Indian” in the First Nations, first Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald implemented a policy of “aggressive civilization” which led to publicly funded Indian Residential Schools. At the time, anyone from the ages five to fifteen years old were forced to go to a Residential School. A total of one hundred and fifty thousand children was sent to these school’s, however, the negative impact wasn’t limited to these people. The effects of Residential school and Indian Act still resonate for the generations that followed. The systems that the Canadian government use to assimilate the First Nations such as the Indian Act and Residential schools left a huge impact on the Aboriginal community. Social problems, such as abuse, alcoholism, suicide and poverty are only a few of the issues that sprouted from the effects of historical globalization. The Canadian government’s effort in trying to reconcile with the First Nation can be seen through the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the amendment of the Indian Act, and the Truth

Aboriginal people in Canada are the native peoples in North America within the boundaries of present-day Canada. In the 1880’s there was a start of residential schools which took Aboriginal kids from their family to schools to learn the Roman Catholics way of culture and not their own. In residential schools Aboriginal languages were forbidden in most operations of the school, Aboriginal ways were abolished and the Euro-Canadian manner was held out as superior. Aboriginal’s residential schools are careless, there were mental and physical abuse, Aboriginals losing their culture and the after effects of residential schools.

Residential schools one of Canada’s biggest and most horrific secrets. The three main arguments to be analysed are the negative effects of abuse within the schools, the loss of the Aboriginal culture and finally the lack of role models within the child’s primitive years. The documentary We Were Children directed by Tim Wolochatiuk in 2012 and the Letters written by Lucy Affelect and A.F. MacKenzie help validate Lafrance and Collins essay. The essay Residential Schools and Aboriginal Parenting: Voices of Parents by Jean Lafrance and Don Collins accurately demonstrates the negative effects Residential schools had on Aboriginal people.

Furthermore, there were a lot of mental issues that the kids developed at the schools. Ultimately residential schools were a horrible time and place for First nations children to be going to school. First Nations students at residential schools would face abuse from the

Aboriginals or indigenous Australians are the native people of Australia. Aboriginals were nomadic people who came to Australia about 40,000 – 60,000 years ago from Southeast Asia. Religion is a great part of Aboriginal culture. The essay answers these questions: What do Aboriginals belief? What is a Kinship system? What is Dreaming and Dreamtime? What rituals does Aboriginals have?

In the 19th century the federal government of Canada decided that they were responsible for the aboriginal people 's assimilation into mainstream society and that they, the aboriginals, needed to adopt the British and French also known as Euro-Canadian culture, as their own. Government officials knew that the aboriginal children would be easier to mold than the adults, and therefore created residential schools specifically for them and deemed attendance mandatory. The majority of these schools were run by churches and thus one might then assume these aboriginal children were provided with a good and solid upbringing and education. But in this paper I will prove this assumption not only to be incorrect, but that the treatment of the children by all those involved was immoral and unethical.

Residential schools segregated and integrated aboriginal children to “civilize and Christianize” to Euro-Canadian values, then were sent home to teach their families those same values (Chansonneuve, 2005, p. 34). Residential schools had immediate and long-term impacts on Aboriginal children and families. There were three phases of residential schools between the mid 1800s when residential schools were created until 1998 when the government’s response to the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was released (Chansonneuve, 2005). Residential schools had harsh conditions and damaging impacts on the Aboriginal people involved. As a future social worker, I believe acknowledging and having a background on residential schools