The issues surrounding aboriginals

730 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Racial disparities in the education system within the united states

Aboriginal student can feel institutionalized and out of place while attending school, but others aboriginals see school as an opportunity to gain knowledge. Aboriginals can come from homes with detrimental environments such as alcohol/drug abuse, sexual, physical or mental abuse, parents’ relationship problems and other common teenager troubles. In order to deal with these problems one must understand the situation. These issue are a direct result of colonization and residential schools. Native Americans cannot change the past, so we must heal ourselves collectively for the future of our race. Aboriginals find healing through regaining their lost culture and having close relationships with their families. Practising culture can be as easy as a simple smudge to an intense sweat lodge ceremony. Guillory and Wolverton say that “establishing and maintaining a sense of ‘family,’ both at home and at college, fortifies American Indians’ academic persistence”(61). Strengthening family relationships is important, not only to aboriginals, but to all humans. Unfortunately Native Americans have weak relationships with their families due to the intergenerational effect of residential schools, and they might not want to strengthen the relationship. So, we must ask ourselves: How can Native Americans regain their lost culture and identity? How can natives improve the average quality of life of their people? What can Native Americans do to promote success in western academia? Aboriginal people of North America can use Western education and traditional culture as gateways to improve the quality of life of Aboriginals collectively in order to deal with the residential schools’ legacy of trauma. As long as the legacy remains so does the poverty and...

... middle of paper ...

...ths about us. Some people believed that we lived in a tipi on a reserve. Others were not informed about residential schools, and do not even know what it was. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian addresses the problem of racism briefly, but the main character, Junior, always felt out of place. Alexie writes about a boy named Roger who tells a racist joke about natives being the spawn of buffalos and black people (63). There is also the thought of people being racist without them saying a word. I know I have felt some cold stares from older people that I thought was a result of my skin color. Junior also felt these stares from his first day at school. “Those white kids couldn’t believe their eyes. They stared at me like I was Bigfoot or a UFO” (Alexie 56). Unfortunately, some non-Native Americans have not taken the time to realize the root of our problems.

Show More
Related

  • The Impacts of the Sixties Scoop on First Nations People

    1683 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the 1950s and 1960s, the government began abolishing the compulsory residential school education among Aboriginal people. The government believed that Aboriginal children could receive a better education if they were integrated into the public school system (Hanson). However, residential schools were later deemed inappropriate because not only were the children taken away from their culture, their families and their people, but the majority of students were abus...

    Read More

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

    954 Words  | 2 Pages

    This again shows the traumatic effects of residential schools and of cultural, psychological, and emotional upheaval caused by the intolerance and mistreatment of Aboriginals in Canada. Settlers not only displaced Aboriginal people from their land and their homes, but they also experienced emotional trauma and cultural displacement.

    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

  • Susan Cloud Discrimination

    789 Words  | 2 Pages

    The systematic racism and discrimination in America has long lasting effects that began back when Europeans first stepped foot on American soil is still visible today but only not written into the law. This racism has lead to very specific consequences on the Native people in today’s modern world, and while the racism is maybe not as obvious it is still very present. These modern Native peoples fight against the feeling of community as a Native person, and feeling entirely alone and not a part of it. The poem “The Reservation” by Susan Cloud and “The Real Indian Leans Against” by Chrystos examine the different effects and different settings of how their cultures survived but also how so much was lost for them within their own identity.

    Read More

  • Aboriginal Over Representation Australia

    1409 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the late sixteen century, when the first fleet arrived to Australia and discovered the free settlers or known as Australian Indigenous inheritors (The Aborigines), the community of aboriginal inhabitants since then have experienced vast levels of discrimination and racism against their gender, race, colour and ethnicity. The term over representations refers to the presents of minority or disproportionate ethnic aboriginal groups represented in the criminal justice system (CJS). This essay will further explain the relationship between aboriginal communities and policing discussed in Blagg (2008) and Cunneen (2007, the three major sources of concern in association to aboriginal over representation in CJS which include; systematic bias,

    Read More

  • The Selfhood Of Aboriginal Education By Erica Neeganagwedgin

    1108 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the article by Erica Neeganagwedgin she examines aboriginal education from pre contact, through the Residential Schools and concludes with contemporary issues in education, focusing on women in multiple sections. Neegangagwedgin argues how colonial education curriculum in Canadian schools are marginalizing and oppressing aboriginal students by rarely including their history, heritages and cultural antecedents therefore creating a ‘denial of the selfhood of aboriginal students” (p.28). She starts by comparing the pedagogy differences between Aboriginals and Eurocentric students the stem of differing worldviews which have created this problem as Canada denies to recognize the Aboriginal worldview as legitimate. Bringing light to the idea that

    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

  • Essay On Aboriginal Education

    845 Words  | 2 Pages

    Indigenous students in schools have made it clear as to what they want and need from the education system. Knowledge of Indigenous humanity and diversity, the history of colonialism, local history and contemporary culture, indigenous knowledge, languages and worldviews are topic in which they want to become evident in school system that are able to help with their health and wellness. There has been and there are continuing attempts to reform First Nations education funding. Aboriginal children and adults continue to face these unsuccessful attempts which continue to horrify Canadians.

    Read More

  • Aboriginal Education Essay

    1462 Words  | 3 Pages

    The education of Aboriginal people is a challenge that has been a concern for many years and is still an issue. However, it remains the best way young people can climb out of poverty. With the colonialization and the oppression of Aboriginals, there have been many lasting side effects that continue to be affecting the Aboriginal youth today. “While retention and graduation rates have improved among urban Aboriginal population, an educational gap still remains between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth in urban settings” (Donovan, 127). Many suffer from a diminished self-worth, as they do not feel valued and feel inferior to their classmates. In this essay I am going to outline the reasons Aboriginals are struggling, discuss what is being done

    Read More

  • Reflection About Aboriginal Studies

    1020 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout this course, I have experienced many different forms of personal growth, but I would say the two major areas were open-mindedness and research skills. Before this course, I alway thought my lifestyle was the correct way to live because it seemed to work very well for me. However, after learning more about the Aboriginal way of life, I have become much more open-minded to other lifestyles and cultures. I no longer think of my lifestyle as being correct, but I recognize this lifestyle is fulfilling and best for me, while another culture or way of life can make someone else just as happy and be just as fulfilling for them. Therefore, I’ve grown to be more open minded and

    Read More

  • The Stolen Generation of Aboriginal Decent

    917 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Stolen Generation has left devastating impacts upon the Aboriginal culture and heritage, Australian history and the presence of equality experienced today. The ‘Stolen Generation’ refers to the children of Aboriginal descent being forcefully abducted by government officials of Australia and placed within institutions and catholic orphanages, being forced to assimilate into ‘white society’. These dehumanising acts placed these stolen children to experience desecration of culture, loss of identity and the extinction of their race. The destructive consequences that followed were effects of corruption including attempted suicide, depression and drug and alcohol abuse. The indigenous peoples affected by this have endured solitude for many years, this has only been expressed to the public recently and a proper apology has been issued, for the years of ignorance to the implementation of destruction of culture. The Stolen Generation has dramatically shaped Australian history and culture.

    Read More

  • Psychological Damage Inflicted by the Residential School System

    2029 Words  | 5 Pages

    First Nations children suffered many forms of abuse at the hands of the Canadian Government (Oh, Canada!) under the guise of residential schools. The purposes of the residential schools were to remove First Nations children from the influence of their families and cultures, and to intergrade them into the dominant culture (The Residential School System). This was done under the assumption that First Nations culture was lesser, “to kill the Indian in the child” as it was commonly said. The children were forcibly separated from their families to live in year-round schools where they were taught “white man” curriculum, with a two-month vacation time, completely separated from their Aboriginal heritage and forbidden from speaking their own languages (The Residential School System). If these rules, along with many others, were broken the punishments were severe (Oh, Canada!). Residential school survivors spoke of their horrible abuse during their time at the schools, including: sexual, physical and psychological (The Psychological and Intergenerational Impacts of the Indian Residential School System). The students received an inferior education, usually only taught up to grade five, training them for manual labor jobs (The Residential School System). The residential school system undermined First Nations culture and disrupted families for generations, leaving severe psychological damage in not only the survivors but also their families and the following generations (The Psychological and Intergenerational Impacts of the Indian Residential School System). Many students grew up without experiencing a family life, never gaining the experience and knowledge necessary to raise a family of their own. The effects of the schools were far reac...

    Read More

  • Sherman Alexie's Indian Education

    1266 Words  | 3 Pages

    Adjusting to another culture is a difficult concept, especially for children in their school classrooms. In Sherman Alexie’s, “Indian Education,” he discusses the different stages of a Native Americans childhood compared to his white counterparts. He is describing the schooling of a child, Victor, in an American Indian reservation, grade by grade. He uses a few different examples of satire and irony, in which could be viewed in completely different ways, expressing different feelings to the reader. Racism and bullying are both present throughout this essay between Indians and Americans. The Indian Americans have the stereotype of being unsuccessful and always being those that are left behind. Through Alexie’s negativity and humor in his essay, it is evident that he faces many issues and is very frustrated growing up as an American Indian. Growing up, Alexie faces discrimination from white people, who he portrays as evil in every way, to show that his childhood was filled with anger, fear, and sorrow.

    Read More

More about The issues surrounding aboriginals

Open Document