University essay collection

English 3713: Final Paper

Magicseeker

Sarah Mackenzie

English 3713

April 4th, 2016

Lasting Effects and Damages of European Colonization and the Journey toward Healing

European colonization was a devastation to the population, culture, and lives of the indigenous community. Not only was their population greatly diminished by foreign contagions, but the colonizers and settlers inhibited their survival by creating restrictions on hunting, and sometimes prohibited the practice of their own culture, which effectively limited their ability to practice their own traditions. Many of these actions were done through a false justification that they were helping by bringing civilization to a 'primitive' people. The European myth used religion as another way of justifying their actions, claiming that their religion dictated a moral superior over the indigenous population, and therefore had a responsibility to convert them. This ideology resulted in the excuse that residential schools were intended to save indigenous children's souls; when in reality, the entire institution was designed to humiliate, stop them of their culture, and subject them to various forms of intense abuse. In past years there has been a recognition of the atrocities and crimes committed against the indigenous people; however, despite many people being ready to acknowledge the lasting damages that have resulted from colonization and residential schools, the majority of settler population still appear to be ignorant to the fact that the European myth is being perpetuated in present society through the cycle of denial and misinformation in the education system.

It is important to note that despite the European colonizers justifying their actions through their own skewed version of morality and religious practices, their beliefs did not have any more basis in 'reality' than indigenous spirituality. Although, Europeans still used these 'sophisticated' structures in order to claim superiority over the native people, and attempting to invalidate their spiritual beliefs. Because Europeans used their myths to claim that indigenous people were not 'civilized', and therefore not necessary to be treated as humans, they consequently had no entitlement to their own land in the eyes of European people. "Its function is to bolster and protect the collective self-esteem of the settlers. The destruction of Indigenous nations and the theft of Indigenous land go unmentioned even by those who are well aware of those events."(Episkenew, 109). These views were the basis of 'assimilation', that functions as an act of perverse charity, forcefully imposing their myth onto indigenous people, with the claim that it was 'for their own good'. This was just another method that they used in order to eliminate, what they considered to be an 'inconvenience'.

Colonization of Canada spurred many racially motivated crimes and misbehaviors, from a social stigma surrounding the indigenous people, to literally hunting them as though they were not even human. However, residential schools maybe the most well-known instance of extreme violence perpetrated against the Indigenous population. Since the last residential school closed in 1996, there has been an increase of survivors coming forth with stories of their experiences and abuse that they suffered. The initial response of the public at having the truth exposed, was denial; although, the general public eventually recognized the accuracy of their statements.

Many survivors recorded having had suffered mental, verbal, physical, sexual, emotional, cultural, and spiritual abuse at the hands of the religious figures who were supposed to be their educators. The accumulation of similar accounts made about residential schools, made it difficult to ignore on such a large scale. These reports included: extremely poor nutritional intake, beatings when disobeying the priests and nuns, or when speaking in their own language, sexual exploitation of the children, and the manipulation of other children in order to inflict psychological damage on one another.