Aboriginal Self-Determination
The legacy of residential schools
By Nicole Dzuba
The history of the residential school system in Canada offers an appalling picture of the brutality and force that was used during the establishment and development of the Canadian state. Residential schools for Aboriginal youth existed for over a century under the administration and control of the Canadian government. While the last federally run residential school closed in 1996, the struggle for redress continues among the estimated 86,000 former students still alive today.
Residential schools were established in the late 19th century by the federal government, in partnership with church organizations, to overcome some of the economic and political challenges inherent in its colonial project. It became clear to the newly formed state that Aboriginal peoples were not interested in giving up their political power and their right to self-determination. Such Aboriginal resistance was incompatible with the state vision of a stable and homogeneous Canadian society and was viewed as a threat to the political and economic development of the country.
In an attempt to secure the colonial agenda and to reduce further risk and expense, the Canadian government assumed a policy of assimilation and adopted a paternalistic role in state relations with Aboriginal peoples. Central to this new policy was a strategy of assimilation through education. It was envisioned that “by placing the Indian within a circle of civilization,” the socializing power of education would replace one culture by another and the development of industrial society would not be stunted or threatened by the ‘uncivilized.’ This sentiment was made clear by the minister of Indian Affairs, Frank Oliver, in 1908 when he predicted that education would “elevate the Indian from his condition of savagery” and “make him a self-supporting member of the state, and eventually a citizen in good standing.”
This strategy was implemented in partnership with the Anglican, Catholic, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches that had been operating missionary schools throughout the territory since as early as the 1820s. The partnership made sense, given the economic feasibility of accessing existing church infrastructure and the influential role played by churches during that period. For the duration of the partnership, the churches retained the role of operating the schools, while all other aspects of Aboriginal education became controlled by, and the responsibility of, the federal government.
Residential school abuse
By 1879 the Department of Indian Affairs had adopted its most devastating version of ‘Indian’ education policy with its commitment to the development of residential schools. They were premised on the notion that adults were lost to civilization and consequently impossible to assimilate. If there was to be any hope for civilizing the ‘Indians,’ it would be necessary to remove children from their homes and place them in large educational institutions that were isolated from the cultural influences of their family and community.
130 such schools were built and operated throughout the provinces, except for Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Parents’ resistance to giving up their children was met with amendments to the Indian Act making attendance mandatory and thus legalizing the more violent recruitment tactic of forcibly removing children from their homes.
Persistent federal under-funding of the schools meant that the teachers and administrators who were shipped off to remote regions were in many cases unqualified as educators and caregivers. They were immediately immersed in stressful, fatiguing and frustrating work environments that became sites of horrific abuse.
With cultural assimilation being the primary objective of the schools, the use of Native language was harshly punished. One former student told of how she was punished for speaking her language by being dragged to the front of the class by her tongue. She was forced to stand in front of her classmates, dripping with blood, after the teacher had pierced three needles through her tongue.
Insufficient funding and mismanagement turned the schools into labour camps and death traps. Children were overworked to sustain the functioning of the school. Decaying structures, overcrowding and malnutrition did little to protect against outbreaks of tuberculosis and smallpox that killed large percentages of the student population.
In attempts to escape neglect, sexual abuse, beatings and strappings, many children ran away and lost their lives in the bush while trying to make it home, while others found relief through suicide.
Though reports about the crisis situation in the schools from parents, inspectors and concerned staff members are recorded to have reached the Department, the requests for relief were ignored more often than not. In many cases the churches denied allegations of abuse and defended staff members who had been accused of crimes against the children.
In moments of clarity when the Department was forced to acknowledge their failing efforts, some feeble attempts were made to increase funding and improve the conditions of the schools. Nevertheless, the improvement in the quality of student life was insignificant.
Apologies, redress and healing
Though the schools now cease to exist, their legacy continues to shape the lives of thousands of people. The federal agenda of assimilation failed, instead leading to the marginalization of entire peoples, brutally disrupting and interfering with all aspects of Aboriginal self-determination. The years of fear, loneliness and instruction in self-loathing have led to cultural loss, anxiety over identity and family breakdown. The impacts of mental, physical and sexual abuse at the hands of church officials continue to plague survivors and their communities today.
The struggle for redress for abuses suffered in the residential school system began to take form in the 1990s when former students began to launch legal claims against the government of Canada and the churches. By 1992 most of the churches had apologized and made commitments to work toward reconciliation, yet in an attempt to avoid compensation claims, some offered only “confessions.”
The federal government initially refused to issue an apology and also denied Aboriginal demands for a public inquiry. It was not until 1998 after significant pressure and the release of the report by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples that the Canadian government issued a Statement of Reconciliation that included a partial apology to those who had suffered physical and sexual abuse in the schools.
The Assembly of First Nations has demanded redress in the form of state funding for the process of healing, compensation for loss of culture and language and compensation for the physical and sexual abuse suffered in the schools. An Aboriginal Healing Foundation was established in 1998 to administer various healing programs over a six-year period. However, it has been reported that hundreds of former students have been turned away after funding shortages caused a number of programs to dissolve.
Claims are also being heard in the courts and an Alternative Dispute Resolution process (ADR) was established by the federal government with the supposed intention of making the compensation process faster, less costly and less stressful for former students. In practice, however, the process has remained extremely slow and has generated huge and costly bureaucracies that serve to intimidate and demoralize former students. A federally proposed plan to spend $3 million a year on private investigators to “confirm” cases of abuse adds further insult and frustration for those who seek redress.
Aboriginal self-determination
What seems to be the most significant limitation to these forms of compensation is that they have the potential to obscure the political debate. Both the litigation and the ADR process define the issue of redress solely in terms of individualized compensation for abuse and they place the responsibility for initiating claims onto the shoulders of each individual former student. Though individual compensation is necessary, it is not sufficient to address the systemic racism and oppression imposed on self-determining peoples. Similarly, though federal funding of healing is necessary, such commitments should not be allowed to monopolize discussion and derail the larger issue of the right to self-determination.
Movements from below calling for such redress have the potential to gain momentum as Aboriginal peoples in the former British colonies unite around a shared experience of colonization and residential school abuses. This year, residential school survivors and supporters organized a National Day of Healing and Reconciliation including walks to provincial legislatures and the national parliament on May 26th.
In Manitoba, the unity walk began in Fox Lake Cree Nation and grew to as many as 600 as they made their way south to the Manitoba Legislature. This coincided with Australia’s National Sorry Day commemorating the government’s role in removing Aboriginal children from their families. Such initiatives shed light on residential schools in the context of the colonial project and support the larger struggle for self-determination.
While this struggle continues another assault on the right to Aboriginal education has begun. Recently, the federal government announced a plan to tax education allowances and scholarships provided to status Indians. This and the struggle to maintain the provincial tuition freeze brought 1500 Winnipeg students out to a Day of Action at the University of Manitoba campus on February 2nd of this year. Such vigilance and solidarity will be necessary as the logic of the nation-state launches its next attack.