I'm just going to start off by telling you that I am only going to be talking about Canadian treatment of Indigenous people. I am well aware that America had residential schools and would not be surprised if such practices occurred in South America and any other colonized locations. I am just not well versed in the history of those regions and those church establishment. Also if I went through each of those I feel like the perspective would shift towards the churches involvement with colonialism (which it was aggressively) and away from an indigenous perspective. So, just that heads up. I am certain that this is not going to be news for colonized individuals. If you relate to this perspective I hope that you can feel like there are others out there like you and I feel so sorry that you have to be in this position.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recently there were 215 dead children found buried in unmarked graves at a British Columbia residential school. The only reason that these bodies were found was due to an indigenous effort. For those that do not know residential schools were places that church officials brought indigenous children to be taught while they were denied access to their family and their home. Not only did these locations have rampant abuse occur within them but also the children would be moved between schools making it nearly impossible for them to be able to escape and return home. Those children that did often became lost and would not return home. The statistics regarding these schools are generally horrifying regarding the amount of deaths that occurred due to abuse, malnourishment, and those that would become lost in the Canadian wilds attempting to escape. Those that did not die were either given to new families or returned to their old ones without any concept of their home culture and having been instilled with the idea that the indigenous culture they were in is wrong. It is a big scary word to use but this was at the very least a cultural genocide of indigenous people across all of Canada. I don't say this to try to guilt you into feeling bad, I just want to inform those of your that don't know.
Due to history like this Canada launched the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2008 that was meant to go through the colonial legacy of Canada to be able to work to undo the harm. During this commission they were told that 50 deaths occurred at the Kamloops residential school, that is the one where the bodies were found recently. You might notice that there is a slight discrepancy regarding those numbers. Thus we enter into the problem. Either this means that this commission was uninterested in getting the full story from local communities or they purely trusted the residential school or local records on the deaths at the school. There is also the factor that there are church records that are not being released which would have probably provided a better picture of things, but probably not. Why would they keep proper documentation of children they are trying to erase the existence of anyways? You don't have a commission with the goal of finding the truth about something to only trust the records of the people that are the ones being investigated. The local indigenous communities know, they all knew what was going on there but the government would much rather go through documentation because even if the numbers are wrong they are numbers.
This focus on numbers over the oral history of indigenous communities is one of the biggest divides plaguing Canada right now. The colonial structure functions on a different language than the indigenous groups that it interacts with. The colonial language is one of check marks, legal procedures, and superiority over anyone that can't speak it all covered in a bulletproof shell of bureaucracy. It forces you to speak its language and then ridicules you for doing it poorly. This is why indigenous people are tired of trying to get the government to help them. They get given promises that are not fulfilled that people are going to use as proof of "lazy natives piggy backing off of the government". It has gotten to the point where there is a push to have indigenous lawyers and other such people to be able to even the playing field in regards to such discussions. This is how far the discussions have been skewed, that someone needs to go through extensive schooling in law and its history to be able to have a voice at the colonial table that can still be ignored.
On the other side of the discussion is how these residential schools are depicted as ancient history to the majority of Canadians. The Kamloops residential school closed in 1978, the last residential school (though I do not think it was in active use, not sure tho) closed in 1996. That is not ancient history, that is decidedly modern. It needs to be understood that this mentality hasn't gone anywhere, it is just that it is not being facilitated by the church. We still see this practice being pursued today with the large amount of indigenous children in the foster system. The colonial system has done so much damage to indigenous people that it would only make sense that the generational trauma would lead to troubled homes. Even if the parents are loving and caring for their child the state of housing, clean water, or even food on reserves ranges wildly. So there are children being taken away from perfectly capable parents due to an economic situation that is being forced on them. The choice that is continually being made is to facilitate further generational trauma by putting children into a system that, even if it wanted to, cannot truly provide the proper care required to these children. This is not the direct genocide of residential schools but it is a soft echo that is going on in the background of every indigenous issue that comes to light.
I was talking to my Mom about this during our usual morning kitchen talk and she told me about how her grandmother, my great grandmother, would talk about how "None of her kids were going to be taught to be priests or nuns". This was her talking about what was being told to them about residential schools. This is a Metis woman speaking about this outside of a reserve. This shows that this was a systematic pursuit. They were going through entire regions looking to snuff out the culture of the indigenous people in the area. I think this is one of those points that people that contest if they are attached to the catholic church and they still believe that it is functioning directly from the good book. I have to say that it wasn't their main goal but they sure weren't bothered about it happening. Their goal was to institute their own culture and "values" on to what was obviously perceived as lost and uncivilized children.
Just like the residential schools becoming foster care this mentality has just changed shape and has become a this disgusting thread that is wrapped around the throat of every indigenous issue. It is these stereotypes of the uncivilized and savage indigenous person that become self-fulfilling prophecies because of the frustrating circles that we are forced to go through to prove that we aren't exactly that. Every time a road or railway is blocked it is treated as if the indigenous people that are doing it don't understand the scenario. It is used as proof that the overly emotional native can't function within civilized society. They don't want us dead, they just want us to be invisible.
In response to these children being found people placed children's shoes on the steps of parliament for each of the 215 bodies. The problem I have with these emotional gestures is the only people that are emotional about them are indigenous people and allies. I am certain that people are going to walk by and pay it no mind or take a moment to take a picture in front of it before going off and getting a bite to eat. This shit is for media outlets that will talk about it as filler between the most recent covid update and the most recent sports game. What are indigenous people meant to do though? We try to appeal to some sort of empathy or emotional element to the strife that is occurring amongst our people and it can be ignored or brushed off to the side because it isn't happening at this literal moment. The whole time that we are trying to display this trauma in the hopes of sympathy we are opening up our own old wounds. It is hard to not hear calls for "healing" and not hear "accepting the pain", you need to stop getting stabbed before you can bandage yourself.
I have been hearing about Nation to Nation and autonomy for indigenous people but I have my doubts due to all of that requiring the participation of a colonial system that is entirely unwilling to fix the problems regarding indigenous people because it is helpful not to. So then it is going to be wholly on indigenous people to solve indigenous problems all the while the colonial establishment pats us on the back and tells us "wow, this really was a team effort."
If you are going to ask me what I would like to see come out of this then here is what I would want:
- The church release all documents regarding residential schools, if this has to come from the pope then so be it
- A revision of education in schools regarding the colonial part of Canada, especially regarding the depiction of residential schools as distant history or solely done by the church
- Other residential schools to be gone over with ground penetrating radar with the local indigenous communities consent
I doubt that most of this is going to happen, I also think that these are incredibly reasonable asks. I just hope that the slightest bit of progress can come from this rather than just indigenous pain. I also understand that this will probably will get dropped and forgotten about like most indigenous issues. I get it, it is upsetting to hear about the history of colonialism that is still playing out when you want to be the civilized modern man that doesn't engage in such barbaric practices. I also don't want to have to talk about this sort of thing and feel the way I do but here we are...