Residential Schools

Canada is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, 2017. The fact that Canada was founded on stolen land and that its history, just as the history of colonization by European settlers, seems to be wiped away for many, many years. But today Canadian society and its government cannot look the other way anymore. Several Indigenous nations and communities, who spoke up already decades ago, get finally a little bit more attention and expound what went wrong in the past and the present. 

 

The case of Residential Schools is one chapter of Canada's “dark history“. The Residential Schools were part of Canadian school system where Indigenous children were taken from their families to assimilate them with the Christian and the Canadian social mainstream, influenced by European principles. The idea was to delete Indigenous cultures in the memories of those children, including Indigenous languages, sacred ceremonies, and traditions. The European settlers viewed the Indigenous ways of life as primitive and underdeveloped. Just as the pivotal of European colonization, they thought their culture is the superior and developed one.

The first Residential School opened in 1880s. The idea was "to kill the Indian in the child" and the execution of it was cruel. Indigenous children lost the contact to their families and homes, often for their whole lives. Therefore many children never had the experience of a nurturing family life. If someone thinks about their own identity the family is probably the first thing that comes to mind. It is hard to imagine how those children felt without this crucial part of belonging and identity. Moreover, the Residential School staff misused their authority, and abused Indigenous children physically, sexually, emotionally, and psychologically. The numberless incidents against Indigenous children and their families tore deep wounds. There are many people who suffer from this history. The Canadian government reacted over hundred years after the first Residential School was established. In 2008 the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper formulated an official apology for the harms of Residential Schools: “The burden of this experience has been on your shoulders for far too long. The burden is properly ours as a Government, and as a country.“ 

After the last Residential School was closed at the end of the 20th century, the systemic, structural oppression of Indigenous cultures and traditions continued. Today, there is still a lack in history books and classes concerning the history of Indigenous nations, in Nova Scotia that means especially the history of the Mi'kmaw. Though all this suffering und hurt, the Mi'kmaw peoples want the dialogue with the non-indigenous peoples in Canadian society as well as with the Canadian government.