RUNNING HEAD: Residential schools Social Analysis Report
Residential School
Dayanna De Seixas Santos - 301054145
Ragitha Vigneswaramoorthy - 301056882
Yufei Wu - 301063394
Guoyang Liu - 300966032
Marie Jules-300427399
GNED 500 - 077
Centennial College
Professor: Kritee Ahmed
Introduction
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Residential schools were established in Canada in the 1800’s. The first residential
school was the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario. These schools were sponsored by the
Canadian government and were mostly run by the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist,
United, and Presbyterian churches. The goal was to convert Aboriginal people to Christianity,
to teach them the English language and Canadian customs. For it was believed that it would
help better with the integration of the children to the Euro-Canadian culture (Miller, 2019).
Residential School has created a social problem that has a significant impact on the
lives of many indigenous people and their descendants. The children while attending
residential schools were separated from their families. They had their individuality and
privacy invaded. They were forbidden to speak their native language, and practice their
religion. They were forced to wear uniforms and had their hair shaved. They were forced to
devote themselves to Christianity (Miller, 2019).
Previous knowledge about residential school was obtained by a few members of this
group, upon completion of a course on Indigenous studies. Throughout the course, they had
watched some videos and listened to testimonies of some survivors of residential schools.
According to some of those survivors the condition of these schools was unsanitary,
filthy, and unsafe. Some survivors also indicated that they were malnourished and suffer
mistreatment; they indicated they were physically and mentally abused. (Where are the
children?)
This problem is of great concern to our group, as it should be to every Canadians. We
are a country that believes in human rights, and yet our first nations are still living under
extreme poverty. Many indigenous people and the descendants of “residential schools” are
living with depression, sunken their souls with alcohols and many have committed or
contemplated suicide (Rabson, 2018).
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The last Residential school in Canada was closed in 1964. The Canadian government
had presented some excuses to the indigenous people. Reconciliation has been called between
the first nations and sovereignty. However, many would agree that a greater effort to
implement changes is needed.
We are raising the following questions:
1.
Why the government doesn’t propose a reform to the Reconciliation plan?
2.
Why don’t we do more to compensate the indigenous for their misfortune?
After all we are living on the land that was seized from them, the least we could do is
to recognize them, sustain their social, and economic growth.
