The Fetal Diaries #34: Behind Canada’s Mask
I have been thinking about writing about this subject for a while now, but was never sure if I should. I wasn’t even sure how to relate it to tckid.com. Unsure, until I read jackrabbit’s posts on Native Reservations. This, then, gave me a reason to write about why places so unexpected of Canada exists, just as jackrabbit had described it. Maybe it doesn’t relate to TCKs, but the subject itself tells us a story of cultures clashing, and teaches us a lesson.
I am only an immigrant to Canada. I never looked at it as a home, or anything remotely close. The reality is that the majority of the Canadian population today is made up of immigrants, or descendants of immigrants. Who are the real pioneers of this vast land, anyways? The First Nations, my friends, are the pioneers of Canada and most of the United States. But where are they now? For some reason, the rest of the world barely even know anything about them. Even I didn’t know anything about them, besides the fact that the Disney movie, Pocahontas, was based on their culture and peoples. Nothing, until I moved to Canada. So, what happened? Residential schools happened, Canada’s own version of a cultural genocide.
In 1884, the Indian Act was amended to make attendance in Residential schools compulsory for status Indians under the age of 16 until they reached 18 years of age. By 1920, another amendment to the Indian Act made it mandatory for parents to send their children to these schools. They were government-funded and were run by the church, and were located in every province in Canada, except Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. One hundred thirty of such schools existed between 1884 to 1996.
When I said compulsory, I meant it. Those that refused to attend were forcibly removed from their homes. Most children didn’t see family - not even their siblings who were usually in the same school - for up to 10 months at a time. They were prohibited to speak their own language, play games they learned from home and were punished in unimaginable ways possible. Physical, sexual, and emotional abuse were not rare. Deaths weren’t even uncommon.
Residential schools started because of the colonial peoples of Canada viewed the First Nation’s culture ‘uncivilized’ and so decided to assimilate these people into doing things the ‘normal way’. They thought that the best way to do this is start young through educating these First Nations children. Here’s a direct quote made by Duncan Campbell, Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs from 1913 to 1932, quoted in J. Leslie and R. Maguire, eds., The Historical Development of the Indian Act, 2nd ed. (Ottawa Treaties and Historical Research Centre, Indian Affairs and Northern Development, 1978), p.115:
“I want to get rid of the Indian problem. Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question. Education is int he forefront of their requirements now.”
There was even a documentary we had to watch in my Social Studies class. This 70 something year old First Nations woman talked about how a girl that sat beside her died. She couldn’t even do anything - she was too scared. At this point of the documentary, I was horrified. I have heard similar stories of children being abused in schools all over the world, but in such large numbers, it was terrifying, to say the least.
Residential schools only started to close up around 1969, when the federal government started to take over the running of the schools. The first resedential school civil claims are filed on 1988. Many Canadians now believe that the Residential Schools are the cause for all the problems First Nations people have today. By problems, I mean alarmingly high suicide rates among the First Nations people, loss of culture and identity, alcohol and drug abuse, emotional problems such as feeling unloved or uncared for, and lack of positive role models. This is also the reason why places like Native Reservations, just as jackrabbit had described it, exist.
On June 11, 2008, the Canadian government made a public apology.
“Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm and has no place in our country,” says Harper. “The government of Canada sincerely apologizes and asks the forgiveness of the aboriginal peoples of this country for failing them so profoundly. We are sorry.”
- Stephen Harper, Canadian Prime Minister
The ending is bittersweet to most. Many have suffered already, and although there has been a sincere apology made, it’s already too late for others. However, some see it as an opportunity to start new.
At the start of my Social Studies class this year, I always wondered why this certain First Nations girl always spoke out against Residential Schools. I didn’t know anything about it, until we talked and learned about it in class. Now I know why. Cultures will always clash, but something like attempting a cultural genocide shouldn’t happen again. I’m not even directly linked to it, but somehow, it has taught me so many things, and touched my heart, and hopefully, it has done so for you too.
For more about Residential schools, visit: http://archives.cbc.ca/society/education/topics/692/
June 23rd, 2008 at 4:14 pm
There would seem to be an extensive and sadly consistent treatment of native populations just about everywhere that fell under European colonization… For Australia, you can get a quick enlightening snack if you rent “Rabbit Proof Fence”. Aboriginal society today suffers from many of the same issues of shorter lifespan and poorer quality of life. (re)Settlement of New Zealand certainly took its toll on the Maori population, where they too feel the far reaching effects of years at the short end of the stick. When one nation is conquered by another (though in many cases here the conquered weren’t recognized as legitimate nations in the first place), the natives suffer mightily. There sure has been a lot of cultural loss in the name of bringing civilization to supposed “savages” (ironically, people who often had a much better understanding of living WITH mother nature)
Good stuff Kristine! Thanks for sharing!
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June 23rd, 2008 at 4:30 pm
wow…
it’s a shame that (like other cultures) they thought First Nations should be “assimilated”
unfortunately that was the mindeset back then… etnocentrism… happened a lot here in south america too
I can relate to some of their feelings: lack of identity, depression, feeling unloved, etc.
I think it’s very possible that this came from them being forced to absorb a culture that isn’t theirs.
This is similar to what I felt, but I think for me it was more of an invisible pressure while theirs was a very visible one.
I’m glad the current government apologized, but I think it will take much more than that to heal these people’s wounds.
(if that’s ok with you, of course)
If your classmate needs help, you can tell her to join our site
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June 23rd, 2008 at 4:38 pm
It’s really sad how things like these residential schools are implemented in the name of ‘integration’ and yet the very society that does this doesn’t want to integrate with the people who are being put in such schools.
So they force them to change their ways to suit their own culture and then reject them.
Very sad…
There’s a lot of finger pointing in the global news these days toward specific countries but as I mentioned before almost every country is guilty of many of these things. This very finger pointing to hide their own skeletons in the closet is another dark side of human nature I don’t much care for.
On a more positive note…well, done Kristine
Very well, written.
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June 23rd, 2008 at 5:51 pm
I really love this post–you’re writing is very mature, you should be really proud of yourself.
I agree with what Maira wrote, I’ve experienced the same feeling.
I actually wrote a paper like this for my American National Government class, where we were supposed to focus on the loss of civil liberties.
What I find the most disgusting about these kinds of situations is that while most everyone else has apologised–Canada, Australia–America has yet to even review a drafted letter to the same effect.
And the facts just don’t leave your head either–they sit there, tormenting you, because there’s nothing you specifically can do. When the settlers first arrived, there were an estimated 50 million native peoples. By 1900, there were 200,000. And these three countries–Canada, Australia, the States, all used the schooling tactic. Australia went so far as to steal generations of Aboriginal children and place them in white families to aid in the “assimilation” process.
The loss of heritage, culture, and identity cannot be replaced. But a simple, stark apology, like that of Australia’s Rudd: “We apologize for the laws and policies of successive…governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss…For the pain, suffering, and hurt…we say sorry.” We can’t wash our hands of this, we can’t believe that saying sorry makes up for all the acts committed, but at least there would be a start.
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June 23rd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
I’m so proud of you sis, and I’m glad you shared this!
“I’m not even directly linked to it, but somehow, it has taught me so many things, and touched my heart, and hopefully, it has done so for you too.”
It does and like Maira said, I think we can relate to those feelings, I’ve experienced the same things too.
Great post. Lolcat gives it 5 cheezeburgers.
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June 23rd, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Terrific post Kristine, and a plus to correct referencing too. It’s article-worthy.
As Maira said, every country has done this, really. I suppose the shock of it is that Western countries, commonly upheld for being about freedom and liberty and the like, were practicing the subjugation of “lesser peoples” for a long, long time, which doesn’t really live up to their reputation.
And as Caitlin said, the US still has yet to do so for its native population.
The interesting thing about South America is how intermingled the European and Native populations became. As much inequality as there was, and as much as the native populations suffered, it’s unsurprising there for, say, two white parents to give birth to a black child, because of previous ancestry.
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June 24th, 2008 at 5:26 am
Thanks for the nice comments! I really, really appreciate it.
Anyways.. I think it’s amazing how well canada can hide such past atrocities so well. Who would’ve known that this had happened? *I* would’ve never known if i didn’t move here. The fact is that the national news corporations like CBC are kinda biased. Sure, they show both sides of the story: the past and present, the negatives and positives. However, they don’t show how it had affected people. The closest they’ve gone into speaking out about the violence and such happening in these places is showing a woman by her brother’s tomb, talking about how her brother had killed himself because he can’t forget about the real life nightmares he had experienced it the hands of residential schools. Now, that’s really sad and tragic, yeah, but no more than that. Does it tell us about the drug and alcohol abuse? The violence? I think people should see that side too. It’s not easy for us to do that though, because as jackrabbit has mentioned in his post, it’s not exactly safe. Now CBC has that power but they don’t use it. Maybe, if they showed that side, then people would wanna help out.
I’m not saying they don’t do anything right. It’s just that maybe if they showed people what it’s like, less and less people would condemn natives of being alchys, bums and potheads, but more of a person that has suffered a painful past nobody can blame them for.
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June 24th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
First of all, well done Fetus! This is a very different side from the teenager I know of you
With that said, like Ayako mentioned, it’s sad but true that this is not only happening in Canada or Australia or the USA. It’s happening everywhere, every single country. The degree of violence varies from place to place but in the end it’s all for the same purpose.
Cultural genocide - always makes me wonder who decides that one culture is better than the other? All because of one person’s idea? Wars happen because of this “I don’t like what you’re doing so I am going to change you because I say so, because I am without question superior than you.” People do not like to admit that they have killed hundreds of others because they don’t want to be responsible. They’d rather ignore the problem and move on. People like this make me sick.
However, looking at the other side of things if people don’t hate each other because of their culture/race/etc, would people still be fighting for themselves and work hard to get to the top?
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June 24th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
The question of whether who’s superior i think, is one of the stupidest questions ever. A lot of people will nod in agreement, i hope.
The word civilized will never have a set meaning.. What is considered civilized in one place will be savage in another. It can’t be helped, and i dunno why people feel the need to condemn others of being uncivilized. It reminds me of that time when we had a debate on whether seal hunting should be stopped or not. I was for seal hunting. It has been a long tradition for some families in rural parts of canada, and i felt that if people needed to kill seals for a living in order to survive, then by all means, go. Anyways, a friend was against it for the debate.. She went on about how it is uncivilized, and right after i heard that word, i immediately asked for a chance to speak.
“i’m sorry, did you say uncivilized?” (at this point, my team’s dying to laugh, and the opposing team members are shaking their heads in disbelief. I quite frankly enjoyed this moment. I mean, this was a friendly debate but that girl was actually quite smart, and so getting something in there to demolish the other team felt good.. Anyways i kept on going..) “that’s what the colonial europeans said when they first met the first nations people.. What happened? Residential schools. And the europeans aren’t the only ones.. Who are we to say who’s civilized? What we find civilized here might be uncivilized somewhere else.. I don’t think it’s our place to say who’s civilized and who isn’t.”
Yes. That felt really good. It was a huge OH BURN moment for me.. Good times. But anyways, you prolly see the point i’m tryna get at..
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June 24th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
But anyways, guys, thanks! I really appreciate it.. You don’t know how much this means to me.. Really.
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