Residential schools: Government-sponsored religious schools established to assimilate Indigenous children into the Euro-Canadian culture.
Assimilate: cause (something) to resemble; liken.
Elaine White was one of the thousands of Aboriginal children...
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This story covers many of the real-life events that occurred to the Aboriginal children attending Canadian Residential Schools! This covers abuse of different natures, racism against aboriginal culture, depression, death, suicide and more.
These can be triggering topics, so please read with caution.
IMPORTANT BACKGROUND INFO
For some people, this may be the first time you have ever heard about residential schools in Canada. Please take some time to read a few of these basic facts to have some knowledge about you are going to read and what many children, some as young as four, lived through for years.
1. Residential schools were schools for aboriginal children that were paid for by the Canadian government but were run by the Christan Churches.
2. There was at least 80 different res. schools across Canada at one time, peaking in 1931.
2. Children as young as four attended various res. schools across Canada, often being ripped forcefully from their families and communities.
3. Children attending these schools were to leave all aspects of native culture behind, including but not limited to language, hairstyles, clothing, and spiritual beliefs.
4. Many children suffered from physical, mental and sexual abuse from the school staff.
5. The last res. school to shut down was closed in 1996.
6. The effects of res. schools are still felt today and can be seen with higher chances of being in prison, suffering from addiction or abuse, and having staggering rates of suicide. In 2006 Health Canada reported that suicide rates were "five to seven times higher for First Nations youth than for non-Aboriginal youth" and that suicide rates among Inuit youth "were among the highest in the world, at 11 times the national average"
The story that follows is only one side of the story and while I have done a lot of research in order to properly and respectfully write this story, if there is unfactual information, please point it out to me in the comments so that I, along with other readers can further our understanding of this dark part of Canadian and Aboriginal history.
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"As a residential school survivor, there were things taken away from us that we can never ever get back, doesn't matter how hard you work at it. I worked hard to get my culture back, my language. I still have to work at it. There are many missing things that I can never ever get back, but having the government apologize and acknowledge the damage that has been done, I feel a little reprieve. I can live with it and I think that's another step forward. Why not keep going? The path is there now, follow it. ...I left home when I was five years old, so the family bonding that all of you get when you're a child, in those formative years, I don't have that. But I somehow learned that after having five children I worked hard at bonding."
