CULTURE IMPOSED UPON ANOTHER CULTURE IN A BRUTAL & DEHUMANIZING WAY - THE INDIAN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL TRAGEDY
In the 1870s, the federal government, partly in order to meet its obligations to educate aboriginal children, began to play a role in the development and administration of these schools.
Two primary objectives of the residential school system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture.
These objectives were based on the assumption that aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal.
Indeed, some sought, as was infamously said, “to kill the Indian in the child”.
quote from Apology to Former Students of Indian Residential Schools
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CBC ARCHIVES: 1955-2002
The forced removal of at least 100,000 Inuit, First Nations, and Métis children from their homes, and their subsequent placement into government funded, Church-run boarding schools constitutes one of the darkest incidents in both Aboriginal and Canadian histories.
