The Impact Of Historical Globalization In Canada

From the 1870’s until the last school closed in 1996, at least 150,000 Indigenous children attended residential schools in Canada. More than 130 government mandated schools existed across the country. These schools were church administered, with the express purpose of forcibly removing Indigenous children from their native culture, in an effort to assimilate them into Euro-Canadian culture and thereby “kill the Indian in the child”. Countless families were torn apart as the Canadian government placed

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.

Canada ­as a nation is known to the world for being loving, courteous, and typically very welcoming of all ethnicities. Nevertheless, the treatment of Canada’s Indigenous population over the past decades, appears to suggest otherwise. Indigenous people have been tormented and oppressed by the Canadian society for hundreds of years and remain to live under discrimination resulting in cultural brutality. This, and more, has caused severe negative cultural consequences, psychological and sociological effects. The history of the seclusion of Indigenous people has played a prominent aspect in the development and impact of how Indigenous people are treated and perceived in today’s society. Unfortunately, our history with respect to the treatment of Indigenous communities is not something in which we should take pride in. The Indian Act of 1876 is an excellent model of how the behavior of racial and cultural superiority attributed to the destruction of Indigenous culture and beliefs. The Indian Act established by the Canadian government is a policy of Aboriginal assimilation which compels Indigenous parents under threat of prosecution to integrate their children into Residential Schools. As a nation, we are reminded by past actions that has prompted the weakening of the identity of Indigenous peoples. Residential schools has also contributed to the annihilation of Indigenous culture which was to kill the Indian in the child by isolating them from the influence of their parents and

When discussing the Aboriginal quality of life within Canada there are several issues that come to mind, such as health, education, housing and our Canadian-Indigenous relationship (First Ministers And National Aboriginal Leaders, 2005, p. 1). However, many times Canadians neglect to distinguish the root of the issue. While residential schools may be addressed and looked upon historically, the traumas and effects are still particularly palpable for many Indigenous communities. For this reason, it is significant for Canadians to be empathetic towards the underlying issues, for obstacles like Indigenous health to be properly handled. Within this essay, I create an awareness of the impacts of assimilation tactics to Aboriginal communities;

In reflecting on that Wab shared of his father’s experience in the residential school system, information gathered from the text, as well as my own prior knowledge, operated under various religious organizations, in tandem with the Government of Canada, residential schools were one of the methods used to assimilate Aboriginal children into white society (textbook). Tasked with the responsibility to “remove the Indian from the child” such was accomplished through whatever means necessary, whereby come the stories of physical and emotional abuse, in addition placing many children under experiments involving malnutrition (Erin discus). The consequences of such schooling then included, an increased number of generations growing up outside the family environment, these individuals no longer fitting into their Aboriginal communities, yet they are not accepted in

Throughout Canada’s 150 years of being a country, Indigenous people were oppressed. The children were forced into residential schools, and eventually, over decades, the entire culture was lost. Looking back on it now, it is clear that what had happened was a “cultural genocide.” Cultural genocide is defined as, “the destruction of structures and practices that allow a group to continue as a group” (Moffit, Brown, 2017).

While the initial objective was for the schools to help integrate First Nations children into the mainstream society they lived in, this integration clearly became an attempt at conversion. The children were removed from their families for extended durations, attempting to ensure Canadian-Christian upbringing. The residential schools original goal drastically changed, with their disgraceful policy regarding forbidding Aboriginal children from any kind of acknowledgement and recognition of their native language and culture. There are numerous reports of physical, psychological and sexual abuse experienced by Indigenous children in residential schools and painful consequences that in most cases last a lifetime (Hanson, E.).

First Nation Peoples within Canada have been facing many injustices in their homeland since the dawn of colonization. The most unraveling point to First Nation assimilation was the formation of the consequential Indian Act and residential schools resulting in a stir of adversity. As racist ideologies within Canada developed, upheaval against such treatment was undertaken as First Nation communities fought back against government land claims and eradication of treaty rights. In attempt to make amends, proper compensations from the injustices within residential schools have been released and the key for the future is allowing First Nation self-government. Ideals with the intent of ultimate assimilation have been standardized unto First Nation

Residential schools in Canada were present for over 100 years and were created by the government to eliminate the Indigenous culture. These schools successfully separated families while creating huge cultural barriers between children and their Native culture (COHA, 2011). These children were forcibly removed from their families and taken to residential schools because Canadians saw Indigenous peoples as “backwards” or “savage” (COHA, 2011). They also believed that they were inferior to Natives and that these schools would help “civilize” aboriginals by replacing their Native traits with Western values (COHA, 2011).

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.

“Thousands of Canada’s Aboriginal children died in Residential Schools that failed to keep them safe from fires, protected from abusers, and healthy from deadly disease” (Kennedy). “Residential Schools were government-sponsored religious schools established to assimilate Aboriginal Children into Euro-Canadian culture” (Miller). There were approximately 130 schools in every province and territory with the exception of Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick all with an estimated 150,000 attendees, segregated by gender (CBC News). Residential schooling caused tension as well as intergenerational suffering among native communities in Canada. Acts of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse support the tragedies in Canadian

Aboriginal children cannot forget what happened to them in the past. In 1870s, above 150 000 aboriginal children took from their parents to attend Canada’s Indian Residential Schools until 1970s (CBC News, 2010, p 49). The most goals for those schools learned aboriginal children the culture of European people (CBC News, 2010, p 49). Unfortunately, aboriginal parents have not choice even if they want to send their children to schools or not (CBC News, 2010, p 49). According to CBC News if aboriginal children tried to breakout from schools and coming again to their families, they will send back to their schools by Indian agents (2010, p 49). Moreover, there are negative aspects of Canada’s Residential Schools on aboriginal children, such as they beaten and physically abused if they speak their native language, do not pay attention in class, or there is no reason (CBC News, 2010, p 50). As a result, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) began in 2009, to gather information about what happened to aboriginal children on Canada’s Indian Residential Schools and share their stories with all Canadians (CBC News,2010, p 46). The TRC done enough for the survivors of the aboriginal children in Canada’s Residential Schools: collect a historical record, financial compensation, apology, the missing children, and recommendation.

This paper revealed the impact of residential schools on the Aboriginal people of Canada. If one does not expect to find education as a tool for assimilation and colonization, indeed you expect to find abuse as a way of assimilation. This paper argued that although there was an apology if Canada continues to discriminate against the Aboriginal people reconciliation is not a factor. It is evident that the Canada government obviously want to stop the Aboriginal people's culture, language, and spirituality. They look at the Aboriginal people as inferior to take care of their children.

Canada was colonized by the British in the 17th century for economic exploitation proposes. Post Colonialism looks at the impact of colonization on the native settles after the colonizers rule is ended. In Canada, Aboriginals were forced on to reserves, their land was taken through deceit and their children were sent to residential schools in order to assimilate them and end the ‘Indian Problem.’ Residential schools were run by the church and funded by the state. The motive behind the residential schooling system was to separate children from their families and compel them to assimilate to European-Canadian way of life. Haig- Brown explains that “First nations in BC not only had European exploration on their land but also, faced assimilation policies: the residential schooling system which forcefully took children from their families and ‘trained’ the culture out of them”