Since 1863 even more from 150. 000 indigenous children were separated from their families and taken to state boarding schools in Canada.
These managed schools by the government, and operated mostly by the Catholic Church, were part of the policy to achieve assimilation of indigenous children .
Minors They were not allowed to speak their language or practice their culture and many were mistreated and abused.
Now, the terrifying discovery of the remains of 215 kids who were students of one of those boarding schools, the Kamloops Indian Residential School has again focused on the abuses committed in these institutions .
“Cultural genocide”
Christian churches were essential in the founding and functioning of this type of schools.
The Catholic Church, in particular, was responsible for trade until 70% of the 130 boarding schools , according to the Society of Residential Schools Survivors of Indian.
Children they were forced to abandon their native languages , speak English or French and convert to Christianity.
Joseph Maud was one of those children. In 1966, with five years old, she entered Pine Creek boarding school in Manitoba.
Students were expected to speak English or French, but Maud spoke only her native Ojibwa.
Yes students spoke their own language, had their ears pulled and their mouths washed with soap, Maud told the BBC on , when a report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR) was published.
“But the biggest pain was being separated from my parents, cousins and uncles and aunts, ”Maud told the BBC.
The report described the government-led policy as a“ cultural genocide. ”
“These measures were part of a coherent policy to eliminate Aborigines as distinct peoples and assimilate them into the Canadian mainstream against their will,” reads the report’s summary.
“The Canadian government followed this policy of genocide cultural because he wanted to shed his legal and financial obligations with the aborigines and gain control of their lands and resources. ”
Bad conditions and abuses
The report also detailed radical failures in the care and safety of these children, with the complicity of the Church and the government.
Students often They were housed in poorly constructed buildings with little heating and unhealthy , according to the report. Many lacked access to trained medical personnel.
With the work of the CVR, it was estimated that some 6. 000 children had died while in boarding schools. Their bodies rarely returned home and many were buried in nameless graves.
The Missing Children Project documents the deaths and burial sites of the children and to date more than 4 have been identified. minors.
But many more suffered emotional abuse , physical and sexual .
Maud told the BBC in 2015 I had to arro kneel down on the cement floor of the chapel, because the nuns told him that “that’s the only way God listens to you.”
to finish this? Someone help me. ‘”
He recalled that when he wet the bed, the nun in charge of his bedroom rubbed his face with her own urine.
“ It was very degrading, humiliating. Because I was sleeping in a bedroom with others children ”, he said.
In 2008, the Canadian government formally apologized for the system.
E l find in the Kamloops school
The Kamloops school, which worked between 1890 Y 1969, was the largest of its kind schools, known as the Indigenous Residences School System.
Under Catholic administration, it came to have until 500 students when it peaked in the decade of 1950.
The discovery at the end of last May the remains of at least 215 indigenous children in a mass grave at this school has sparked outrage across the country.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the finding a “painful reminder ”of a“ shameful chapter in our country’s history. ”
Trudeau has also urged the Catholic Church to “ take responsibility ”for its role in indigenous residential schools.
The central government assumed the administration of the school in 1969, using it as a residence for local students until 1978, when it was closed.
“We need to have the truth before we can talk about justice, healing and reconciliation,” Trudeau said.
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