Summary: The Outside Circle

933 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Lasting impact of residential schools

In the eighteen seventies, residential schools grew to popularity in Canada with an unethical goal and purpose to “kill the Indian in the child”. Stripping away cultural teachings and altering historic facts eliminated self- identity within the Aboriginal community, leading to impoverishment and race discrimination with future generations. Therefore, re-gaining the cultural knowledge and informing the public about the culture can establish self- concept and security. In the graphic novel, The Outside Circle by Patti LaBoucane-Benson (2015), teachings from the Warrior Program leads the group members and their families to discover self-concept, reducing problems experienced as an Aboriginal. Emphasis on historical and cultural Aboriginal studies …show more content…

For example, in The Outside Circle (2015), Joey Carver is the youngest member of his family and unaware of his culture’s history. His mother does not educate him about her personal historical related experiences and his brother’s bonding consists of video games and gang related topics. Joey shows signs of depression and low self-esteem, through his appearance and attitude. Low self-esteem is a result of poor self-identity and self-concept. Altering current Canadian education that portrays greater emphasis on honest Aboriginal history and admitting to the mistakes made aids with positive mental health. Knowledge of one’s own ethic history determines self-identity which can boost self-esteem and essentially gain confidence allowing an approach to life in a positive manner. Exposing honest history can also rebuild trust between Europeans and Aboriginals, decreasing negative mental thoughts about one another. Exposing historical facts can also interest the public in Aboriginal related issues. Increasing exposure builds public interest in forming resources and programs to help issues. For example, the public will build more physiological research specific to Aboriginal culture making suitable for client-centered …show more content…

Parental influences from each generation leads to chain reactions affecting the behaviour of future children. The instructor of the Warrior Program states that “they (the children separated from their families by residential schools) didn’t learn to be parents and instead just passed on their hurt to their children” (LaBoucane-Benson, 2015, p. 49). As told from Uncle Ray Carver, Bernice Carver was taken by the government as a child to stay of in a residential school. She did not remember her family, as seen in Peter’s small and incomplete family map. Charoenwongsak et al. (2017) conducted a lab observing the relation between parenting styles and drug abuse in Thai adolescents. This study concluded that neglectful parents (or the absence of parents) put Thai adolescents in a risk for substance use. The lack of attention and warmth from parents creates dependency needs, leading children to rely on substances to fulfill dependency. Therefore, it can be inferred that Benice Carver depended on drugs caused from the separation from her family, which lead to poor parenting skills resulting in Peter’s drug association. The current Canadian education system needs to put an end to the chain reaction of disturbed parenting styles within the Aboriginal community caused by the residential schools. Research of personal family members, teaching correct parenting styles and training

Show More
Related

  • Essay On The Legend Of The Rock Bottom Trauma

    1645 Words  | 4 Pages

    Canadians are just recently beginning to realize the detrimental aftermath of the years of trauma experienced by Indigenous peoples of Canada, such as the survivors of the residential school system. It is often difficult for these people to overcome the impact that follows. Undoubtedly, it requires help and support from others, but these people must make their personal healing journey themselves. The passages “Rock Bottom” by Steven Keewatin Sanderson and the “Legend of the Sugar Girl” by Joseph Boyden prove that although trauma can significantly undermine groups of people, they can overcome their difficulties. Both authors illustrate how trauma negatively affects characters, causes them to fall victim

    Read More

  • Summary Of Patti Laboucane's The Outside Circle

    753 Words  | 2 Pages

    Aboriginal people are struggling to improve their lives while re-discovering their traditional values after years of oppression. In the graphic novel, The Outside Circle, author Patti Laboucane-Benson grapples with the ramifications of government abuses. Laboucane-Benson craftsmanship paints the picture of racial inferiority among First Nations through the residential school trauma, causing readers to ponder the difficult questions of race. Readers observe the novel through Pete’s eyes and follow along on his journey of an identity crisis and self-discovery. The powerful and deeply moving graphic novel reflects the widespread reality regarding manifestation of urban poverty for the First Nations culture through the representation of the injustices

    Read More

  • The Treatment of Aboriginal People in Eden Robinson's Monkey Beach, and Constance Lindsay Skinner's Birthright

    954 Words  | 2 Pages

    Both Birthright and Monkey Beach show the injustices the Aboriginal community faced and still faces today. These injustices cause emotional, physical, and psychological scaring which eventually leads victims to become abusers and victimize others in the future. This victim-to-abuser cycle is noted in a study which showed that “there is positive correlation between a victim of sexual abuse and becoming a perpetrator.” (Glasser, 9) This causal effect is seen through Josh, who had been sexually abused in residential school. Josh's traumatic childhood resulted in the abused becoming the abuser when he raped his niece, Adelaine. An uncle is seen as someone who can be trusted, a member of the family; however, Josh ended up harming Adelaine. This mirrors the duality of nature in the no...

    Read More

  • Overcoming Racism In Richard Wagamese's Indian Horse

    498 Words  | 1 Pages

    Many Aboriginal children across Canada are distressed as most of them have difficulty finding their inner quality and enhancements in life. This is visible in the life of Saul Indian Horse, the main protagonist in Richard Wagamese’s “Indian Horse”. Saul has many struggles in his life that he had to overcome, He could have come down a negative path, but instead learns from them. Saul’s personal growth is a result of overcoming racism, surviving residential school and his passion for hockey.

    Read More

  • Aboriginal

    1291 Words  | 3 Pages

    Residential schools undoubtedly created detrimental inter-generational consequences. The dark legacy of residential schools has had enduring impact, reaching into each new generation, and has led to countless problems within Aboriginal families including: chemical dependence, a cycle of abuse in families, dysfunctional families, crime and incarceration, depression, grief, suicide, and cultural identity issues (McFarlan, 2000, p. 13). Therefore, the inter-generational consequence...

    Read More

  • Homeless Youth in Canada

    911 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first reason youth leave home is according to Klodawsky, Aubry and Farrell, “pervasiveness of family conflict and violence”. Most street youth, including aboriginals, have been victims of disruption in their family homes, violence and abuse. A considerable amount of them reported having to live in group homes, foster care, jail or i...

    Read More

  • Fifth Generation of Native People Fallout

    1095 Words  | 3 Pages

    The current generation of native people in Canada are greatly impacted by efforts made by the Canadian government that forced previous generations to assimilate and give up their culture. Most of the fifth generation of native people are not directly impacted by the atrocities that forced their people to give up their culture for the benefit of others; however, their diminished cultural identity is a result of it. Parents who are raising the fifth generation have difficulty passing on their Indian identity to their children (Deiter-McArthur 381). The parents and grandparents of the fifth generation were raised in the residential school system, where they were stopped from showing affection or love for one another even if it was their own brother or sister. This results in a lack of ability for some of them to show love toward their children (Maniitok). Another e...

    Read More

  • The Sociological Effects of Residential Schools

    970 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the 19th century the Canadian government established residential schools under the claim that Aboriginal culture is hindering them from becoming functional members of society. It was stated that the children will have a better chance of success once they have been Christianised and assimilated into the mainstream Canadian culture. (CBC, 2014) In the film Education as We See It, some Aboriginals were interviewed about their own experiences in residential schools. When examining the general topic of the film, conflict theory is the best paradigm that will assist in understanding the social implications of residential schools. The film can also be illustrated by many sociological concepts such as agents of socialization, class inequality, and language as a cultural realm.

    Read More

  • How The Aboriginal Assimilation

    1366 Words  | 3 Pages

    “To kill the Indian in the child,” was the prime objective of residential schools (“About the Commission”). With the establishment of residential schools in the 1880s, attending these educational facilities used to be an option (Miller, “Residential Schools”). However, it was not until the government’s time consuming attempts of annihilating the Aboriginal Canadians that, in 1920, residential schools became the new solution to the “Indian problem.” (PMC) From 1920 to 1996, around one hundred fifty thousand Aboriginal Canadians were forcibly removed from their homes to attend residential schools (CBC News). Aboriginal children were isolated from their parents and their communities to rid them of any cultural influence (Miller, “Residential Schools”). Parents who refrained from sending their children to these educational facilities faced the consequence of being arrested (Miller, “Residential Schools”). Upon the Aboriginal children’s arrival into the residential schools, they were stripped of their culture in the government’s attempt to assimilate these children into the predominately white religion, Christianity, and to transition them into the moderating society (Miller, “Residential Schools”). With the closing of residential schools in 1996, these educational facilities left Aboriginal Canadians with lasting negative intergenerational impacts (Miller, “Residential Schools”). The Aboriginals lost their identity, are affected economically, and suffer socially from their experiences.

    Read More

  • 8th Fire: Indigenous in the City Analysis: One Step Forward, One Step Back

    1576 Words  | 4 Pages

    Though the film mentioned the impact that residential schools had and still has on the aboriginal people, I felt that this issue needed to be stressed further because the legacy of the schools is still extremely prominent in aboriginal communities today. The film refers to the fact that residential schools harmed the aboriginal people because they were not able to learn their culture, which has resulted in the formation of internalized oppression within in the group. “The...

    Read More

  • The Outside Circle: Chapter Summary

    850 Words  | 2 Pages

    Patti Calaboose-Benson's The Outside Circle is a graphic novel based on a story of a young aboriginal man, Pete, who was a member of a gang at the beginning and afterward became part of the warrior program, after being imprisoned for killing his mother's boyfriend. It is set in Alberta, Canada, and centers on the situation of indigenous people in Canada and healing program that is established for the incarcerated native young men.

    Read More

  • Residential Schools In Canada

    714 Words  | 2 Pages

    The end result, rather horrifying as these children were dumped back to their tribes, when they became too old, without a clue of how to survive. Furthermore, children whom returned were discouraged from completing further education due to the fact that they were barely educated in these schools. Most children returned home without semblance of how to raise their own children or show affection. The generational difference also further segregated these children from their parents because most of them failed to understand the culture that they were pruned to deny from childhood. According to the Manitoba Justice institute, the creation of Residential Schools was what created the high rise of abuse and violence among Aboriginal families because the time spent in these facilities isolated the children from nurturing families and taught them abuse. The trauma felt by the children of Residential schools would transcend their behavior to the next generation leading to a vicious

    Read More

  • Aboriginal Education Essay

    1462 Words  | 3 Pages

    For First Nations youngsters, relevant education should include education about their heritage. Where Aboriginal children are in school with other Canadians, this part of the curriculum needs to be shared generally, as self-esteem grows when an appreciation of one’s background is shared by others.

    Read More

  • We Were Children Film Analysis

    1361 Words  | 3 Pages

    Justice has began to commence for many of Canada’s Indigenous people now that considerably one of our Nation’s darkest secrets has been spilled. The Residential School system was a collection of 132 church-run, government-funded boarding schools that was legally required for all Indigenous Canadian children. Canadian Residential Schools ran up until 1996 and, for decades, the secrets from within the walls of the institutions have been hidden. But now, the truth has finally come to light.

    Read More

  • Book Review Of Pamela Palmater's Indigenous Nationhood

    704 Words  | 2 Pages

    Her book focuses on the myriads of issues and struggles that Indigenous men and women have faced and will continue to face because of colonialism. During her speech, Palmater addressed the grave effects of the cultural assimilation that permeated in Indigenous communities, particularly the Indian Residential School System and the Indian Act, which has been extensively discussed in both lectures and readings. Such policies were created by European settlers to institutionalize colonialism and maintain the social and cultural hierarchy that established Aboriginals as the inferior group. Palmater also discussed that according to news reports, an Aboriginal baby from Manitoba is taken away every single day by the government and is put in social care (CTVNews.ca Staff, 2015). This echoes Andrea Smith’s argument in “Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy: Rethinking Women of Color Organizing” that colonialism continues to affect Aboriginals through genocide (2006, p. 68). Although such actions by the government are not physical acts of genocide, where 90% of Aboriginal population was annihilated, it is this modern day cultural assimilation that succeeded the Indigenous Residential School System and the Indian Act embodies colonialism and genocide (Larkin, November 4,

    Read More

More about Summary: The Outside Circle

Open Document