National Day of Healing and Reconciliation

[jawnbc]

Between 1879 and 1979 hundreds of thousands of Aboriginal children from across Canada were forcibly incarcerated in Indian Residential Schools. These institutions' mandate was not to provide these children with a quality education: their purpose was to eradicate Indigenous culture and language and provide inexpensive labourers (farm, resource and domestic) for non-Aboriginal Canadians.

School life was often brutal: long hours of work, corporal punishment, torture, sexual abuse, and in some cases murder. Parents who didn't "willingly" send their children lost permanent custody of them; by handing them over they had the possibility of seeing them for a few weeks in the summer. Often the schools were run, under contract with the government, by the Anglican, Catholic or United churches. In some instances the "teachers" were nuns with no more than a grade 8 education themselves--and no teacher training.

In my opinion there has been no darker time in our (Canadian) history than the era of Indian Residential schools. Families, communities and cultures were decimated. Many who survived were scarred emotionally and physically. And the naturalistic means by which many Aboriginal families transmiited the skills for child rearing were interrupted. Today many Aboriginal persons who never attended Indian Residential School have also paid a price: their parents' inability to raise them.

Today is a day of reconciliation. But we need to look at the reality of what was perpetuated against Aboriginal persons to move forward. There are now many excellent books on the subject. I can recommend one in particular:

Haig-Brown, Celia. - Resistance and renewal : surviving the Indian residential school. - Vancouver : Tillacum Library, c1988

Haig-Brown interviews many survivors and allows them to tell their stories. I've used one chapter from this book ("School Life") many times in my teaching. Without exception students have reacted with shame and disgust...not "white guilt".

I am not responsible for these acts perpetrated against Aboriginal people. I am, however, responsible for playing a part in that reconciliation.

What about you?

Comments

[trevd.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting about that. I'm always shocked at some of the horrible things in our past. The residential schools... the Japanese incarcerations... overall I think we've come a long way, but we can't forget what's already been done, and the damage it did and (in some cases) still does.

[catdraco.livejournal.com]

I am not responsible for these acts perpetrated against Aboriginal people. I am, however, responsible for playing a part in that reconciliation.

Amen.

[nashobabear.livejournal.com]

{sigh} It would be so helpful if people could be persuaded to discontinue such practices, instead of assuming the NIMBY approach and then burying their heads, ostrich-like, in the sand. I hear ya; I'm just coming out of "burned-out on 'man's inhumanity to man' " mode... Bless you for posting this and thus bearing witness.

[that-dang-otter.livejournal.com]

This is great. I think that "guilt" has too often been used as a kind of strawman; "not my fault" becomes "not my responsibility", but of course the establishment of fault is necessary for that kind of logic to work, hence the faux-embrace of that guilt by white people (sometimes, anyway).

Is this inspired by the South African experience? I often think about that, but I don't know much about the outcome of their reconciliation commissions.

[jawnbc]

Is this inspired by the South African experience?

Not directly (at least). Just from managing the process of uncovering for lots of BC students. Differentiating between blame and responsibility is, paradoxically, a huge relief for most.

Thanks!