Memoir Of A Residential School Survivor Essay

The true north strong and free, is a saying commonly used by Canadians to describe their country, a nation that is depicted by many to be one that practices equality and free speech. However, what most people do not know is Canada’s racist and dark history, especially in regards to their treatment of the original inhabitants of this land with its infamous residential schooling, whose lasting effects continue to haunt generations after generations of Indigenous people. The goal of the residential schools was to kill the “Indian out of the child”, a concept that was far from effective while being psychologically damaging in nature. Children who attended these schools were forcefully assimilated into Western culture, and were often physically, sexually and verbally abused, leaving multiple generations of Indigenous people traumatized with the aftermaths of this horrific part in Canadian history. The loss of childhood resulted in

It began in the classroom of residential schools, where children were taught that their culture was primitive, unsophisticated and simply wrong. In the memoir of a residential school survivor, author Theodore Fontaine writes: “The system was racist and based on the assumption that we were not human but rather part animal, to be desavaged and moulded into something we could never become- white.” This, instilled in the young minds of Indigenous youth proved to be disastrous, and further isolated children when they returned to their home communities hating themselves and culture. Moreover, this exclusive feeling often lead to alcohol and drugs to cope, ultimately resulting in addictions and even early deaths. Therefore, the loss of culture, languages, traditions, and the deplorable shame felt by survivors and their descendants are explicitly a result of the horrible residential schooling