Research - Residential Schools - We Were Children

After watching We Were Children, my interest was piqued. I started to think about residential schools and what the Aboriginal children had to face each and every day.

            In the late 1800’s, the Canadian Government started to make residential schools. These schools were for children from Aboriginal families. The children were forced to leave their families behind and go to school to learn a whole new culture – Christianity. There was no choice for the First Nations families. In the 1920’s, the Indian Act stated that if Aboriginal families didn't sent their kids to school, they would be jailed.

            At the schools, the children were stripped of their identities. They couldn't speak their own language, only English or French and not were not even allowed to use their own names. They were only numbers. They wore similar uniforms and had their hair cut a certain way. The schools were run by priests and nuns who often didn't care at all of the well-being of their students.

            When the kids disobeyed the adults they were punished. Most punishments were given when a student failed to speak in either English or French. Getting rapped with a ruler, being forced to hold their tongue, or getting their tongues poked with needles were usual punishments. The children were often abused both physically, emotionally, and sexually and the Government didn't care about the abuse that these children were going through because they were considered to be “Savages”.

            The living conditions in these schools were also often unsatisfactory. The children were often in small rooms packed with beds and fed food that they were not used to which occasionally made them sick.

            After over a century, the last residential school was shut down in 1986. After that, the Government still didn't apologize until 2008 when P.M Stephen Harper made an official apology to the people who were affected by the tragedy that were residential schools.