By Terence Ho | Foundation of HKPLTW
Terence is a Research Coordinator for the Foundation of HKPLTW with interests in history & traditions, social organization & inter-group relations, culture & religion, and economics & politics of Canadian Indigenous People and Visible Minorities. Follow him on Twitter: @hkpltw
Terence is a Research Coordinator for the Foundation of HKPLTW with interests in history & traditions, social organization & inter-group relations, culture & religion, and economics & politics of Canadian Indigenous People and Visible Minorities. Follow him on Twitter: @hkpltw
The confirmation of other unmarked burial sites in 2021 made it quite clear that the Residential School system is the undoubted “Genocide”. This act of genocide is now regarded by some as the Canadian Holocaust”.
Residential School: A System found to Carry out a Genocide that killed thousands of children
From the both the eye test from the stories of survivors and unmarked grave discoveries, there are clear evidences that the former residential schools have committed an act of genocide enabled by the federal government and churches. Both authorities were fully aware of the tragedies, but they concealed the truth from the public. These officials and their modern counterparts, “Residential School Apologists,” claim that the children “only” died of natural causes, attempting to whitewash what many survivors and scholars have characterized as genocide. However, the discoveries of unmarked graves and pieces of historical literature on residential school survivors would prove just how disgusting this line of thinking is.
The further revelation of the graves clarifies that the high death rates and numbers of missing children were by no means natural or inevitable. Many First Nation children did die of illnesses. However, many death could be preventable in many cases through balanced nutrition, a sanitary living environment, and proper medical care. With the residential schools suffered from diminishing funds, the mortality rates amongst First Nation students at these schools fluctuated across Canada.
What is indisputable was that the government and churches knew that the poor living conditions in the schools were the leading factor of the high death rate, did nothing, and hide the truth from society. These officials treated the residential schools as the salvation of the savages and felt the wellbeing of the First Nation children was not a high priority. Maintaining the health and wellbeing of these children was not the official’s intention as much as it was to eradicate their heritages and assimilate the children into the supposedly superior Canadian culture.
Like other genocides in history, many children were forcibly taken to schools that sought to break their familial and cultural ties. Students lost their Indigenous languages and connections to their home communities. Many students spent their childhood with abuses and malnutrition, and others died there. Information of a student’s whereabouts or, disturbingly orwhere they were buried was hidden by the schools. For over 100 years, thousands of children have never returned home, and their families had no idea what happened to them.
The Undoubted Genocide: “Canadian Holocaust”
These acts of genocide happened as a cultural annihilation, resulting in missing children, unnatural death, and abuses. The government and churches knew about the poor condition in the residential schools. However, they deliberately underfunded the schools, which chronically caused the high death rates among the children. Furthermore, the state and the church of Canada delicately attempted to assimilate the children and eradicate the Aboriginal cultures through abuse and manipulation. This is an undoubted “Genocide” or even could be considered “Canadian Holocaust.” The Residential school system did extensive and lasting damage to the generations of Aboriginal peoples, both livelihood and cultures.
Bibliography
“Residential School: A History of Residential Schools in Canada”. CBC News Canada. 2021. Accessed 3 August 2021. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-residential-schools-kamloops-faq-1.6051632
Hanson, Eric, et al.“The Residential School System.” Indigenous Foundations. First Nations and Indigenous Studies UBC, 2020. Accessed 3 August 2021.https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/the_residential_school_system/#survivors-demand-justice
Milloy, John S. A National Crime: The Canadian Government and the Residential School System, 1879 to 1986.University of Manitoba Press, 1999. Xvii, 91–2.
The Truth Commission into Genocide in Canada, “Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust.” The Untold Story of the Genocide of Aboriginal Peoples by Church and States in Canada. http://canadiangenocide.nativeweb.org/genocide.pdf
Barton, Sylvia, et al. “Health and Quality of Life of Aboriginal Residential School Survivors, Bella Coola Valley”. Social Indicators Research 73 (September 2005): 295-312.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. 2015. Canada’s Residential Schools: The History, Part 2 1939 to 2000. The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Vol. 1. 2 vols. Montreal; Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press. 574.
Smith, Derek. H. “The Policy of Aggressive civilization and Projects of Governance in Roman Catholic Industrial schools for Native Peoples in Canada, 1870-95. Canadian Anthropology Society, vol. 43, 2001, pp. 253-271.
This is an opinion article; the views expressed by me.
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