Over the last few weeks, my research coincided with Orange Shirt Day commemorating the years of residential schools in Canada. I have been slowly uncovering what is sometimes called the missing chapter in Canadian history. It isn't easy to open this chapter and turn these pages. I am astounded and saddened by what I find.
My sources include an online presentation given by Dr. Tiffany Prete from the University of Alberta. She is from the Blood or Kainai people and has recently completed a research project about the different types of schools on the Blood Reserve and their history. I have also watched the Orange Shirt Day presentation for Alberta students Grades 5-12 developed by the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation to be shared as part of Orange Shirt Day throughout the province.
From there, I spent time reviewing everything on the website for the NCTR, as well as looking into the calls to action put forward by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. I thought I would share some of my findings.
First of all, I was amazed at how long residential schools existed in Canada. The first schools were opened in 1831 and the last was closed in 1997. Over 150,000 indigenous students experienced some form of residential school education. This is called the missing chapter in Canadian history for important reasons. Survivors of these schools, who experienced the trauma of being separated from their families, taken from their culture and way of life, and often neglected and abused, do not easily share their experiences of these dark times. Some did not survive to tell their stories at all. For example, I read a very sad newspaper report of three young native boys, under the age of ten, who ran away from the residential school they attended after being harshly disciplined, and froze to death, trying to make their way home.
The only records from those times and places were kept by the schools, presenting only one perspective on what took place. These have not been open to the public until recently and many of these documents have been tied up in the largest class action lawsuit of Canadian history. There are questions about the accuracy of some of the information kept, particularly about the whereabouts of missing children. Many of the statistics show hundreds, if not thousands, of children registered in schools who simply disappeared. We know some were buried in unmarked graves on school grounds.
School officials, many who were also priests, nuns or other ministers, sometimes "bought" the children from their parents for food or money to get them to come to schools. Those running the schools often had no training as teachers, doctors or nurses and yet they provided both education and medical care for the children. Many children died of hunger, malnutrition and sickness. There are even instances cited where nutritional research was carried out using indigenous children. It is hard to believe that this is the Canada we know and love, yet the records speak for themselves.
As researchers like Dr. Prete work, they discover the history is very fragmented. It involves thousands of hours of examining documents and trying to put the pieces together. It is also hard going because of the emotional distress that arises from reading and processing these painful stories and statistics.
Schools for indigenous children were not all the same. On the Blood Reserve alone there were many different types of schools. Mission schools, opened by churches before the Indian Act, have no records. After the Indian Act, government records show that the purpose of these schools moved from the assimilation of indigenous children through segregation from their families and cultures to assimilation of indigenous children through integration into western culture. Both of these were highly traumatic to the children. In reading what was written by government officials at the time, it is clear that the purpose of these schools was to eradicate First Nations, Metis and Inuit culture by taking the children and erasing their language, culture and family ties. This was desired because the First Nations culture was deemed to be heathen and inferior to western culture. The only hope of redemption was to be found in destroying it and adopting children into European ways of life.
I am only scratching the surface of this research so far. I am impressed by the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which issued 94 calls to action based on their findings, one of which was the development of the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation which has taken over this work and is housed at the University of Manitoba.
I was encouraged by the Orange Shirt Day presentation prepared by the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation. While there is sadness in the acknowledgement of the TRUTH, there is clearly hope for the future through RECONCILIATION. That hope lies in those who were once exploited, the children.
The question weighs heavily on me, how will I incorporate this piece of history with truth and sensitivity into my next book?
It is very hard to face the truth, as your research has so poignantly demonstrated. It's great that you have undertaken thi s project, to incorporate events into your children's books. Perhaps we can look forward to a better future. I often thought, through my years working at the LCC Upgrading centre in FM, that there were valuable things we European descendants could borrow from indigenous culture: their unconditional acceptance of each other and everyone, for one. And their collaborative, rather than adversarial, way of settling differences.
ReplyDeleteYes, we have much to learn from First Nations culture and other cultures as well. I'm afriad sometimes we are a bit myopic or just uninformed when it cmes to different ways of knowing and living. I'm currently reading a book called 21Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act by Bob Joseph. It's been quite an eye opener. It's given me new insight that I'll be including in Book 3 of Windy Rafters Roughnecks. Thanks for your comment. I'm glad I know how to respond now, too!
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