Residential Parenting

The drastic cultural impact of residential schools on First Nations people has been extensive, as it is mentioned in the novel Keepr’n Me by Richard Wagamese. Keeper’s statement in this book, “Only thing they did was create a whole new kinda Indyun. We used to

The period (1814-1980s) saw the establishment of the Stolen Generations where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were forcibly separated from their families. Neglect was used as the basis for removal (Anderson, 2002). The direct impact of this policy was the death of hundreds of Aboriginal children in residential care, due to physical, nutritional and psychological neglect (Kidd, 2000). From an Indigenous perspective, this removal policy and practice has been considered a genocidal act, which spread injury trans-generationally. It continues to cause considerable grief, loss and trauma among Aboriginal families thus impacting on Aboriginal health and wellbeing (Healing Foundation, 2016). The 2014-2015 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social survey

While advances have been made since residential schools, Aboriginal communities still face challenges in the delivery and content of educational programs and services to their children and face barriers with attempting to have their opinions taken into consideration (Greenwood et al., 2007). One example of this is that there is still a deficiency in education systems in teaching Aboriginal children about the culture and language specific to their traditions and values (Greenwood et al., 2007). Specifically, many high school curriculums still lack teaching about the history of Indigenous peoples or their culture and practices. They also do not account for the fact that Indigenous students may have different learning styles than non-Indigenous students (Postlethwaite, 2007). Additionally, the barriers that many Aboriginal youth and children face from social determinants are rarely taken into consideration by mainstream education (Greenwood, de Leeuw, & Fraser, 2007).

Not many people are aware of how residential schools have affected First Nations people in Canada. These Christian boarding schools, which were government-sponsored and aimed at assimilating Indigenous children, have deeply impacted the native population; and descendants of residential school survivors share the same burdens as their ancestors, even though they didn’t attend the schools themselves. Because of residential schools, domestic abuse and violence is more frequent within families, many have poor mental health and live in poverty, and finally, many of them are unable or unwilling to teach their children native languages or other aspects of their culture.

Jennifer Henderson also mentioned that huge numbers of the research on residential schools deals with the intergenerational effects of abuse and neglect in aboriginal communities. Successive generations of students not only left the schools emotionally scarred and ashamed of their identities but also passed their trauma across the generations. These intergenerational effects, sometimes referred to as “residential school syndrome,” are linked to high rates of substance abuse, unemployment, and family breakdown in aboriginal communities (Jennifer Henderson, et al., 2009). Emphasizing psychological harm can, however, medicalize issues that are political, like the struggle for self-determination, or structural, like aboriginal poverty, and overshadow aboriginal resilience in the face of trauma(Chrisjohn and Young 2006; Dion Stout and Kipling 2003; Miller 1996). In this case, we believe that it is advisable to raise funds to relieve and heal aboriginal peoples’ pressure and

Residential schools have been a part of Canadian history for many years, and it has left a large impact on many first nation communities in the 20th century such as families dealing with the effects of separation and loss of traditions, children having their natural community and supports violated and lastly how it impacted Canada as a whole. Primarily residential schools not only affected indigenous children but their parents who were left behind as well.in the 20th century, children were highly valued, greatly loved members of the community (Florence,25). parents had to manage the overwhelming impacts of division and the danger of losing the attached connection between their children. Life at residential schools resulted in having their hair cut, they were stripped out of their own clothes and forced to wear uniform-like

Residential schools were mostly run by religious groups and over 150,000 students attended between the 1870s and 1970's. They took the first nations children with plans to assimilate them into mainstream culture, and they were forced lose their own aboriginal identity. Not only were the children not allowed to speak the native languages but they could not see family very often if they even could at all. They underwent mental and physical abuse in these schools, in the forms of being beaten as well as sexually abused by

This includes personal trauma and compromised family systems. Aboriginal communities lose their language, culture, and the ability to teach tradition to one generation to another. As reported by the Manitoba Justice Institute, residential schools led to the problem of domestic abuse and violence against Aboriginal women and children. Also, generations of children grew up without a nurturing family life. As adults, many of them abuse their own children because they only experienced abuse themselves while growing up. This results in broken homes,and leads to the cycle of abuse and dysfunction over

For the time in which Residential Schools were attended, children were affected physically and emotionally. Primary objectives of the system were to remove, then isolate children from family and cultural influences, and to assimilate into dominant culture (Harper). This underfunded system alienated children from their families for extended periods of time, prohibiting acknowledgement of Aboriginal heritage, culture, or to speak mother tongues

As previously stated, the main goal of the residential school system was to assimilate aboriginal children and was thought to make them more functional in Canadian society. Children ranging from 4-16 were taken from their homes and families and re-homed in institutions with the goal of assimilation in mind (Nagy, 2012). These institutions were often incredibly harmful to the students because they were not well kept or staffed, and were severely underfunded. These issues resulted in malnutrition, diseases, abuse, and even death. Children who attended were subject to abuse emotionally, physically, and sexually (Chansonneuve, 2012). Along with these issues, the absence of family, native language, and tradition caused the children to feel

Residential schools could change Aboriginal culture in so many ways. If the youth of the Aboriginal peoples are in residential schools, they are being brought up and educated in a culture relating to descendants of European expansion rather than growing up in their true Aboriginal culture. Through this, new generations of Aboriginals may not pass on the rich traditions and culture of their people, but instead will have conformed to the rest of Canadian culture. Also, residential schools may take away the Aboriginal youth from their communities. Many of the children at residential schools will be educated in a different manner than their home community. This can cause a problem because those children may decide to leave their home communities

Residential school refers to a boarding school system setup for Aboriginal children that operated from the 1880s until the late twentieth century education. This system was put in place to “kill the Indian in the child” ( Loppie et al., 2013, p. 6; Miller, 2004, p. 35) While at these boarding schools, they were not permitted to speak their language or practice anything of their culture. These schools were run by religious men and woman. The children were only educated up to grade five level, and only to become work as general laborers in factories or in the home. The focus of their education was to have them, assimilate into ‘Euro-Canadian’ culture, were ultimately this was cultural genocide. Moreover, reports of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse are well documented from survivors of residential schools. Moreover, there were cases of medical experiments being conducted on children. Many children died at residential schools due to maltreatment (FNHA, n.d., para. 22; UBC, 2004, para. 1-3).

For the children that when to residential schools, it could cause great emotional trauma. This trauma could include identity and culture loss. Which could lead to suicide or even confusion of culture. The residential school system was made to “beat the indian out of the child.” But, instead of doing this is just caused the child and even their parents a horrible,terrible childhood/life. Therefore residential schools were an awful thing to do to a child and the purpose was not exceeded.

In conclusion, this text centered around many aspects of the native residential schools and the life the students attending them endured throughout their existence. Food, clothing, and health conditions were main focuses in this text because of its relevance to the lives of the children and staff within the school. Many ideas in the story centered around topics learned through our Indigenous Studies class, as well as comparing and contrasting ideas centering around my own life. This story reveals truths and information about residential schools that are not commonly discussed, providing meaningful insight to those who were not highly educated about these facilities. J.R. Miller provided a text that was relevant to the lives of many

Between 1875 and 1996, First Nations children were forced to attended residential schools to be systematically assimilated into an English-Christian society through abuse, segregation, and racism. Residential schools were created by the Canadian government to transition First Nations children into a newly colonized Canada, but somewhere something went wrong and the policy of teaching was corrupted into assimilation through abuse. The priority of residential schools was to kill the Indian in the child. As a result many languages and cultures were lost as children were not taught the traditions of their heritages and could not pass on this knowledge to their children. Residential schools directly contributed to the loss of the First Nations traditional cultures and created a cycle of abuse for generations to come.