Mourning the deaths of hundreds of children: Canada’s ‘cultural genocide’
Ottawa has been discussing one of the crucial topics after The Cowessess First Nation found hundreds of remains at the site of a former residential school near Kamloops, British Columbia in May, and similar discoveries at other sites like at the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan.
The Cowessess First Nation, one of the indigenous communities in Canada, said the discovery was “the most significantly substantial to date in Canada.”
“This is not a mass gravesite. These are unmarked graves,” said Cowessess Chief Cadmus Delorme.
What are the residential schools?
In Canada, the Indian residential school system was a network that was funded by the Canadian Government’s Department of Indian Affairs and administered by Christian churches for Indigenous peoples.
The residential schools aimed to isolate Indigenous children from the influence of their own native culture and religion and to assimilate them into the mainstream Canadian culture. According to the research, between 1863 and 1998, more than 150,000 indigenous children were taken forcibly from their mothers and family and placed in The Roman Catholic Church’s residential schools throughout Canada.
Speaking their mother language or practising their culture strickly was not allowed.
Former residential school student Florence Sparvier, at a press conference on Thursday, said, ‘They made us believe we didn’t have souls.’ ‘They were putting us down as people, so we learned to not like who we were.’
Children were not only placed in Catholic schools but also put in non-indigenous foster and adoptive homes at birth. Many survivors see these practices as a form of cultural genocide.
The goal for child welfare officials should be to give indigenous families the help they need to keep their children despite any challenges they may face, says Jeffrey Schiffer, the executive director of Native Child and Family Services of Toronto, an indigenous-led agency providing culture-based programs.
“After decades and decades of families being torn apart by systems of residential schooling and later foster care, it is so important that we provide circumstances in which families can stay together, and learn about indigenous culture and language, ‘’ he says. (BBC)
