National Day for Truth and Reconciliation - A nationally recognized day (September 30) to honour survivors of Residential Schools and the children who never made it home.
Residential Schools: government based, religious boarding schools designed to assimilate Indigenous children to Euro-Canadian culture. The first "school" was established in the 1830's and the last school was shut down in 1996.
Although these places were given the title of "school" very little formal education was delivered to the students who attended. An estimated 150,000 children attended these institutions. It is estimated 6,000 children died at these schools - however as more and more unmarked graves are discovered, we realize this is a gross underestimate of the lives that were lost. In total 130 residential schools operated in Canada from 1831 - 1996.
While the intentions might have been good originally - in reality there is very little positive stories coming from survivors. The fact they are called "survivors" is the first clue that residential schools were devastating to Indigenous Culture. Students as young as four were taken from their parents, separated from siblings and by gender. They were forced to do chores and manual labour and the food that was fed to them had little nutrition and was not what they were used to eating. Their language and culture was forbidden and they were often physically punished for using either.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission: ran from 2008 - 2015 and their mandate was to provide those either directly or indirectly affected by The Residential School System a place where their voices could be heard. In their final report 94 Calls to Action were presented. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation has become the permanent archive of stories and artifacts from survivors and their families.
How it all began...
Summative Assessment: Residential School Timeline
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