HIST 203 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Cultural Genocide, Canadian Identity, Sexual Assault
Wednesday May 3rd, 2017
Residential Schools
1. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
2. Recap- Early Aboriginal Policy in Canada. ..
…
Study Questions
● How were schools a divisive issue in the new nation?
● Who were the schools meant to serve- the children or the nation?
● How can we define French Canada at the turn of the century? (Second part of today’s
lecture)
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
● Quotation: Aboriginal Policy in Canada a cultural genocide
● Beverly McLaughlan used this term completed in 2015
● After this, term becomes more prevalent in media and public discussions
● 1970s: Residential school survivors launched, support groups created
● Complete historical record of residential schools: report completed and publicly
presented
● 94 “Calls to Action”
○ Child welfare
○ Education
○ Language and Culture
○ Health
○ Justice
● Intergenerational trauma of schools, roots of social problems can be found in the schools
themselves
● Government and schools brought together
●http://www.trc.ca (link for the report itself)
● University of Manitoba: umanitoba.ca/centers/nctr/index.html
● We are all treaty people:
○ Aboriginal issues are everyone’s issues
○ “By listening to your story, my story can change. By listening to your story, I can
change”
○ Out of respect for those who shared personal stories at commission
Recap- Early Aboriginal policy in Canada
1. Defined “status”
2. Restricted land use and resources (by creating reserves)
3. Confinement and surveillance of Indigenous people (the pass system)
4. Replaced existing forms of aboriginal government with relatively powerless band
councils
a. Traditional ways of choosing leaders were not allowed
5. Denied the right to participate fully in Canadian political, economic and social life to
those Indigenous people who refused to abandon their Aboriginal identity
6. Criminalized Native culture (banning of Potlatch and Sundance)
● Potlatch- gift giving ceremony practiced by some
● Ceremony used to recognize new leadership, as well as other kinds of events
● Also a component of wealth redistribution: goal being to maintain community
solidarity, maintain relations between individuals and nations
● This was incompatible with federal government’s understanding of this
Banff Indian Days
● Banff Indian Days poster, 1926
● Criminalization of culture, except like Banff indian days or Calgary Stampede
● 3, 5 day spectacles like an opportunity to see real indians in their natural surroundings
● Like a zoo or museum
● Natural surroundings, “pre-modern” surroundings
● A performance based in the past, not portraying Indigenous people as present or within
indigenous people’s future
● (reminds me of geog!)
● Tourists flocked to the grounds to see indians
● In the events, the aboriginals showed themselves as complex people
● indigenous people were able to push back, impose restrictions
Keep in mind...
● Residential schools were not put in place to educate Indigenous children, but to break
their link to their culture and identity
● Indian Affairs: “our objective s to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that
thas not been absorbed into the body politic”
● Reducing number of status indian means less of a financial responsibility towards them
● Most closed in the 1980s,
● Catholic, Anglican, United Methodist, and Presbyterian
● Schools made mandatory
Life in Residential Schools
● Built far away, to discourage children from fleeing
● Lonely, alienated
● Poorly located, built and maintained buildings
● Staff limited, poorly trained
● Bad diet
Document Summary
Residential schools: truth and reconciliation commission of canada, recap- early aboriginal policy in canada. How can we define french canada at the turn of the century? (second part of today"s lecture) Quotation: aboriginal policy in canada a cultural genocide. Beverly mclaughlan used this term completed in 2015. After this, term becomes more prevalent in media and public discussions. 1970s: residential school survivors launched, support groups created. Complete historical record of residential schools: report completed and publicly presented. Intergenerational trauma of schools, roots of social problems can be found in the schools themselves. By listening to your story, my story can change. By listening to your story, i can change . Out of respect for those who shared personal stories at commission. Potlatch- gift giving ceremony practiced by some. Ceremony used to recognize new leadership, as well as other kinds of events. Also a component of wealth redistribution: goal being to maintain community solidarity, maintain relations between individuals and nations.
