Introduction: Residential Schools and Decolonization
“Home” to more than 150,000 children from the 1870s until 1996, the residential school system was aimed at “killing the Indian in the child” and assimilating First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children into white settler society. It was, in short, a genocidal policy, operated jointly by the federal gov...
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crcambridgeupr:10.3138/cjls.27.1.067 2023-05-15T16:16:00+02:00 Introduction: Residential Schools and Decolonization Nagy, Rosemary Sehdev, Robinder Kaur 2012 http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/cjls.27.1.067 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0829320100000521 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms Canadian journal of law and society volume 27, issue 1, page 67-73 ISSN 0829-3201 1911-0227 Law Sociology and Political Science journal-article 2012 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.3138/cjls.27.1.067 2022-04-07T08:09:35Z “Home” to more than 150,000 children from the 1870s until 1996, the residential school system was aimed at “killing the Indian in the child” and assimilating First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children into white settler society. It was, in short, a genocidal policy, operated jointly by the federal government of Canada and the Catholic, Anglican, United, and Presbyterian Churches. Children as young as four years old were torn from their families and placed in institutions that were chronically underfunded; mismanaged; inadequately staffed; and rife with disease, malnutrition, poor ventilation, poor heating, neglect, and death. Sexual, emotional, and physical abuse was pervasive, and it was consistent policy to deny children their languages, their cultures, their families, and even their given names. While some children may have had positive experiences, many former students have found themselves caught between two worlds: deprived of their languages and traditions, they were left on their own to handle the trauma of their school experience and to try to readapt to the traditional way of life that they had been conditioned to reject. Life after residential school has been marred for many by alcohol and substance abuse, cycles of violence, suicide, anger, hopelessness, isolation, shame, guilt, and an inability to parent. First Nations leader Phil Fontaine catalysed the struggle for redress in 1990 when he stunned Canada by speaking about his residential-school experience. The second major catalyst was the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) of 1991–1996, which broadly exposed the horrors of residential schools to Canadians and called for a public inquiry. Article in Journal/Newspaper First Nations inuit Cambridge University Press (via Crossref) Canada Indian Handle The ENVELOPE(161.983,161.983,-78.000,-78.000) Canadian journal of law and society 27 1 67 73 |
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Open Polar |
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Cambridge University Press (via Crossref) |
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crcambridgeupr |
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English |
topic |
Law Sociology and Political Science |
spellingShingle |
Law Sociology and Political Science Nagy, Rosemary Sehdev, Robinder Kaur Introduction: Residential Schools and Decolonization |
topic_facet |
Law Sociology and Political Science |
description |
“Home” to more than 150,000 children from the 1870s until 1996, the residential school system was aimed at “killing the Indian in the child” and assimilating First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children into white settler society. It was, in short, a genocidal policy, operated jointly by the federal government of Canada and the Catholic, Anglican, United, and Presbyterian Churches. Children as young as four years old were torn from their families and placed in institutions that were chronically underfunded; mismanaged; inadequately staffed; and rife with disease, malnutrition, poor ventilation, poor heating, neglect, and death. Sexual, emotional, and physical abuse was pervasive, and it was consistent policy to deny children their languages, their cultures, their families, and even their given names. While some children may have had positive experiences, many former students have found themselves caught between two worlds: deprived of their languages and traditions, they were left on their own to handle the trauma of their school experience and to try to readapt to the traditional way of life that they had been conditioned to reject. Life after residential school has been marred for many by alcohol and substance abuse, cycles of violence, suicide, anger, hopelessness, isolation, shame, guilt, and an inability to parent. First Nations leader Phil Fontaine catalysed the struggle for redress in 1990 when he stunned Canada by speaking about his residential-school experience. The second major catalyst was the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) of 1991–1996, which broadly exposed the horrors of residential schools to Canadians and called for a public inquiry. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Nagy, Rosemary Sehdev, Robinder Kaur |
author_facet |
Nagy, Rosemary Sehdev, Robinder Kaur |
author_sort |
Nagy, Rosemary |
title |
Introduction: Residential Schools and Decolonization |
title_short |
Introduction: Residential Schools and Decolonization |
title_full |
Introduction: Residential Schools and Decolonization |
title_fullStr |
Introduction: Residential Schools and Decolonization |
title_full_unstemmed |
Introduction: Residential Schools and Decolonization |
title_sort |
introduction: residential schools and decolonization |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/cjls.27.1.067 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0829320100000521 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(161.983,161.983,-78.000,-78.000) |
geographic |
Canada Indian Handle The |
geographic_facet |
Canada Indian Handle The |
genre |
First Nations inuit |
genre_facet |
First Nations inuit |
op_source |
Canadian journal of law and society volume 27, issue 1, page 67-73 ISSN 0829-3201 1911-0227 |
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https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3138/cjls.27.1.067 |
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Canadian journal of law and society |
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27 |
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1 |
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67 |
op_container_end_page |
73 |
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