What Led To Residential Schools

     When the Europeans settled into Canada, they brought with them, the assumption that the social-cultural differences between themselves and the Aboriginal people, was proof that Canada'a first settlers were arrogant, savage - and like children, in need of guidance. They felt the need to turn the Aboriginals into well mannered civilize individuals. Therefore, they turned to the education system, a federal responsibility.
     It was John A. Macdonald, who commissioned Nicholas Flood Davin to study industrial schools for Aboriginals in Canada. It was Davin, who suggested to follow the United tates of America with the approach of "aggressive civilization". It was this statement that led to the public funding for residential schools. In Davin's Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds in 1876, he stated, "If anything is to be done with the Indian, we must catch him very young. The children must be kept constantly within the circle of civilized conditions".
     In 1920, under the Indian Act, it became mandatory for all Indian children to attend residential schools and illegal for them to attend any other educational program.

What Exactly Are Residential Schools

     Residential school were a government sponsored, religious school program, which was established to assimilate Aboriginal children, into Euro-Canadian culture. Residential schools was an attempt originally conceived by Christian churches and the Canadian government, to educate and iterate Aboriginal youth into Canadian society. The two objectives was to remove and isolate from the influence if their families, traditions, culture and assimilate them into the dominate culture. This occurred on the assumption that aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal. Therefore, residential schools were used to, "Kill the Indian in the child".

What Did Residential Schools Do

     Residential schools were a system the Canadian government set up and administered by churches that have the nominal of education Aboriginal children. They would use damaging and equally explicit ways into introducing the children into Euro-Canadian and Christian ways of living . They used terrible ways of assimilating them int the mainstream Canadian society.
     They forcibly removed the children from their homes, took them away from their families, forbid to acknowledge their own culture, language and Aboriginal heritage.
     Some ways to eliminate all aspects of Aboriginal culture consisted of, cutting their hair short, uniforms, days strictly regimented by timetables, boys and girls kept separate, siblings rarely saw each other therefore weakening family ties. Most importantly, they were forbidden to speak their own language and practice their own culture.

What Did Residential Schools Teach

     Residential school students did not receive the same education the public school students did. Unlike the public school system, the residential school system was underfunded. Girls were taught to do domestic service, laundry, sew, cook and clean. While boys were taught carpentry, tinsmith, and farming.

     Many of the children went to school part time and worked for the rest of the time. Girls did the housekeeping, and boys did general maintenance as well as agriculture. This work was unpaid, involuntary and was considered practice training for the students. However, as residential schools were underfunded, the school could not run without the students labor.
     By the age of 18, students only did up to grade 5 of the education system, after which they were sent away and discouraged to continue their education.

What Were Residential School Punishments

     Children were severely punished if rules were broken. Some of the consequences of breaking rules included sexual abuse, beatings, forced into eating rotten food, starvation, bondage, confinement and forced labor. The children in residential schools would be punished this severely, even after merely speaking their own language. In fact, some students were strapped to their beds and had needles put into their tongues, if caught speaking their native language.

How Did Residential Schools Close

     In 1948, both the house of commons and the senate recommended closing residential schools, however it was the church that opposed. Due to the fact that it was social welfare placement, it kept them running.
     By the 1950's it became clear that the assimilation approach was not working. The Aboriginal culture survives despite the effort to destroy it and the devastating effects of residential schools were becoming more widely known to the public. The government eventually acknowledged that removing children from their homes was bad to the individual children, as well as their families. In 1951, the half day/half work system was abandoned.The process of closing residential schools was slow.
     In the 1970's, the Native Indian Brotherhood called for native control of native education, and that was when the government officially began closing down residential schools.
     In 1960, the system closure gave away the Sixties Scoop. The Scoop lasted until the late 1980's, and it was basically Aboriginal children being taken away from their families and put into foster care, or adoption.
     The last residential school however, closed in 1986.

The Effects of Residential Schools

     According to the Manitoba Justice Institute, it is because of residential schools, why there is so much domestic abuse against Aboriginal women and children.The children come home after going through so much trauma, so when they grow up, they do not have a proper job due to their improper education, which therefore leads the adults to take our their stress on their own families if not others.
     First Nations from the age of 10-44, suffer from suicide and self harm. This is in fact, the number one cause for death and is responsible for almost 40 percent of deaths when it comes to First Nations. Aboriginal women attempt suicide 8 more times than other Canadian women, and Aboriginal men attempt suicide 5 more times than other Canadian men.
     Aboriginal children now feel as if they are nothing, neither Aboriginal or Christian. They struggle to fit into society with home problems and poverty. Government mistrust makes it harder for Aboriginal individuals and community to break the cycle of poverty and trauma.

The Apology

     "We feel that the acceptability of the apology is very much a personal decision of residential school survivors. The Nisga's Nation will consider the sincerity of the Prime Minister's apology on the basis of the politics and the actions of the government in the days and years to come. Only history will determine the degree of its sincerity."- Kecin Mckay, Chair of the Nisga's Lisims Government, June 12, 2008.

     In 2007, the government put in a apology for the residential schools, and the apology was passed in 2008, where the House of Commons gathered to apologize for the governments involvement in the residential school system. The apology was given to the approximately 80, 000 living former students, as well to the their families and communities.

Although the responses to this apology was varied widely, it was the first step towards any form of healing there is.