Residential Schools - Righting Canada's Wrongs
Residential schools for Aboriginal people in Canada date back to the 1870s. Over 130 residential schools were located across the country, and the last school closed in 1996. These government-funded, church-run schools were set up to eliminate parental involvement in the intellectual, cultural, and spiritual development of Aboriginal children. 

During this era, more than 150,000 First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children were placed in these schools often against their parents' wishes. Many were forbidden to speak their language and practice their own culture. While there is an estimated 80,000 former students living today, the ongoing impact of residential schools has been felt throughout generations and has contributed to social problems that continue to exist. 

On June 11, 2008, the Prime Minister, on behalf of the Government of Canada, delivered a formal apology in the House of Commons to former students, their families, and communities for Canada's role in the operation of the residential schools. 


Two primary objectives of the residential school system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture. These objectives were based on the assumption Aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal. Indeed, some sought, as it was infamously said, “to kill the Indian in the child.” Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country.
The pictorial account of, "kill the Indian in the child.”
What do you see in this picture that supports the efforts of those who were trying to change Indigenous children into non-indigenous children...
Why do you think this might be the case? Why might the government not have wanted people to know about residential schools?
Statement of Apology - Stephen Harper
Canada Officially Recognizes Historical Abuse To First Nations
Remembering the Residential School Experience
    Words from Sir John A. Macdonald, The Prime Minister of Canada  1879
“When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with its parents, who are savages, and though he may learn to read and write, his habits and training mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write. It has been strongly impressed upon myself, as head of the Department, that Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men."
                                                                                                                                     - Sir John A. Macdonald Prime Minister of Canada  1879
What are some of your thoughts and comments about the Prime Minister's words...
Map of Residential Schools in Canada
Initially, about 1,100 students attended 69 schools across the country. In 1931, at the peak of the residential school system, there were about 80 schools operating in Canada. There were a total of about 130 schools in every territory and province except Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick from the earliest in the 19th century to the last, which closed in 1996.
In all, about 150,000 First Nation, Inuit and Métis children were removed from their communities and forced to attend the schools.

Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario
The Mohawk Institute was the oldest continuously operated Anglican residential school in Canada. It was established in 1828 as the Mechanics’ Institute, a day school for native boys from the Six Nations Reserve at present day Brantford, Ontario. Three years later, the school took in boarders and girls were later admitted in 1834—this date usually taken as the founding of the residential school. In later years, pupils were drawn from other reserves, such as neighbouring New Credit and more distant Moraviantown, Sarnia, Walpole Island, Muncey, Scugog, Stoney Point, Saugeen, Bay of Quinte and Caughnawaga. In the twentieth century, increasing numbers of orphaned and destitute children were enrolled.
The Legacy of Residential Schools
In your own words, explain what this infographic is trying to say about life in residential schools?
Imagine as a young child who has never been to school being told you were going to school... what might you expect? Would you be excited?

I bet you didn't expect this ...
Meet Phyllis Webstad - the girl behind Orange Shirt Day
The “orange shirt” in Orange Shirt Day refers to the new shirt that Phyllis Webstad was given to her by her grandmother for her first day of school at St. Joseph’s Mission residential school in British Columbia. When Phyllis got to school, they took away her clothes, including her new shirt. It was never returned. To Phyllis, the colour orange has always reminded her of her experiences at residential school and, as she has said, “how my feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared and I felt like I was worth nothing. All of us little children were crying and no one cared.”




This is her story ...
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