Residential School Systems
Between the 1800’s-1900’s over 130 residential schools (boarding & industrial) had been in existence and were still functioning until the 20th century. The reality of these schools were that they were designed to isolate aboriginal children and take them from their families, homes, communities and traditions in attempt to conform them into the dominant Euro-Canadian / Christian ways of living. The residential schooling system was a forcible way of making kids adapt to the Canadian governments view of what the Canadian identity should look like – Aboriginal children were forbidden to recognize their original culture, to practice their own religion, and to speak their own language. If these rules were broken they would be subject to punishments such as physical, emotional and psychological and suffer within an ever-lasting traumatic cycle for decades of their lives. We had two Aboriginal guest speakers come in and talk about their experiences within the residential schools they attended and they also discussed the long and short term effects it had on their lives.
Lila and Shawn came to our class to discuss and give a presentation on the Intergenerational Trauma and the Residential school system. They told us about the road their lives took and how they ended up where they are now and how the experience of being in a residential school has really affected their lives tremendously. They mainly talked about the unresolved trauma that Aboriginal people have lived with for a life time due to the effects and abuse that was experienced within the schools. Lila was in a residential school for most of her life and actually got married beside it… when she was finally done with the residential schools and had left she became severely depressed, abused by her husband until finally leaving, and became an alcoholic. She passed along the sadness and negativity to her children that she had gained from living such a negative lifestyle within...