We Carry Each Other’s Memories…Residential School Survivor Commemoration

Posted On July 31, 2013

On July 13th a black granite sculptured monument was unveiled at Tobique First Nation to commemorate the residential school survivors.
 
The monument is topped with a sculpture of a leaping salmon to honour the children who were taken from their homes, families and communities.
 
Like the salmon, the children made a long and difficult journey to the boarding schools where their culture was ripped away from them and every effort was made to destroy their sense of self.
 
The children who survived the genocidal atrocities perpetrated against them by the church and government at the residential schools made a long and perilous journey home…..home being
the sense of who they were and where they belonged in native society and not necessarily their home community.
 
Besides the torture, rapes and abuse the children suffered, the residential schools shattered the children’s sense of cultural identity.
 
The Canadian policy was to remove “the Indian out of the child”. Conquering nations commit cultural genocide both by the outright killing of the targeted population, and by destroying the people’s way of life and sense of self.
 
Designed for genocide, the schools had a 50 percent death rate. Over 50,000 children were murdered or disappeared from the schools from the time they began in the 1840s till the last school closed in 1996.
 
The schools were all operated by various churches as conversion to Christianity was a fundamental part of the agenda .
 
As we all know, more blood has been shed in the “name of religion” than for any other reason.
 

To further invalidate their identities, the children were not allowed to speak their own language. If they disobeyed this rule, they would be beaten into submission or worse.
 

Dr. Peter Bryce was the chief medical officer at the Department of Indian Affairs in the early 20th century. In 1909 he issued a report stating, ‘I believe the conditions are being deliberately created in our residential schools to spread infectious diseases. It is not unusual for children who are dying from consumption to be admitted and housed alongside healthy children.”
 
The response from the government was chilling. After reading the report, Indian Superintendent Duncan Scott wrote a colleague about it: “It is readily acknowledged that Indian children lose their natural resistance to illness by habitating so closely in these schools, and that they die at a much higher rate than in their villages. But this alone does not justify a change in the policy of this department, which is geared towards the final solution of our Indian Problem.”
 
This “Final Solution” would also become the name of the genocide perpetrated against the Jewish people by Nazi Germany.
 
Today the indigenous peoples of Canada are speaking their truths and bringing to the light of day the horrific atrocities committed by so-called Christians and religious leaders in the name of “educating and assimilating Indian children.”
 
The Canadian government is still pursuing this policy of assimilation, and following the tactics of ruling elites throughout history, they are still following the old “divide and conquer” script.
 
Many non-aboriginal Canadians also buy into this party line and believe that Indians need to assimilate into our capitalist society, and they are resentful of what they perceive as handouts.
 
They subscribe to that old Calvinist Puritan code that says that we need to suffer to please God, and work like slaves… as if being miserable makes one more worthy in the eyes of the creator.
 
But what will heal our country, and the whole planet, is a return to the indigenous native values and spirituality that the residential schools tried so hard to snuff out.
 
Strong communities, connection to family and a reverence for all life are necessary for us all to survive and thrive.
 
Instead of further polluting our planet in the mad quest for oil and natural gas we need to think smaller, think local and live in harmony with nature in a sustainable manner.

Stephanie Kelley