SOC 475 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: John A. Macdonald, Canadian Indian Residential School System, Child Neglect
Document Summary
For over a century, the central goals of canada"s aboriginal policy were to eliminate aboriginal governments (ignore aboriginal rights, terminate treaties, and through assimilation to cease aboriginals as a distinct legal, social, cultural, entity in canada. The establishment and operation of residential schools= cultural genocide. Physical genocide= mass killing of members of a targeted group, & biological= destruction of reproducing capability. Cultural= destruction of structures & practices that allow a group to be a group. Destroys the political & social institutions of targeted group- land is seized, populations are transferred, movement is restricted, language is banned. Spiritual leaders are persecuted, practices are forbidden and objects of spiritual valued destroyed. Families are prevented from transferring cultural value & identity to other generations. Canada did all this with aboriginal people- asserted control over land, and in some cases seized it. Negotiations of treaties were marked by fraud & coercion.
