What Do Canada's Native Residential Schools And Barack Obama Have In Common?
Published April 30, 2008
At first glance there might not appear to be much in common between the Canadian government's announcement of who will be heading the Truth and Reconciliation Committee looking into the history of the Residential School System in Canada and the presidential aspirations of Barack Obama and the controversy surrounding the pastor of his church, Jeremiah Wright. Yet both stories reflect deep divisions that exist in both Canadian and American society. Even a cursory look at the history behind both stories reveals the similarities, while also making a telling statement about both countries and their approaches to similar problems.
In Canada, as in other areas of North America, after the government was unable to commit actual genocide against the Native population they decided to settle on the next best thing and try for cultural genocide. Towards that end they enlisted the aid of both the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches in establishing the Residential School system. A generation of Native Canadian children were taken from their families and placed in this school system in order to drive the "Indianness" out of them.
To that end they had their identities stripped from them through changing their names, forbidding them to speak their languages and practice their religions, and teaching them that the ways of their parents were evil. They were forced to speak in either only English or French, depending on what part of Canada the school was in, and given training in the most menial of professions. The girls were put to work in the school kitchens and laundries so they could learn how to be scullery maids and the boys were put to work as janitorial staff and given basic training in unskilled labour.
Aside from having to cope with the terror of being away from home and family, they were also subjected to physical and emotional abuse as punishment for attempting to use their own language or attempting to follow their traditions. On top of that, large numbers of both the boys and the girls were sexually abused on a regular basis by the staff of the facilities. As a result of the Residential Schools - the last one was closed in the 1970s - generations of Native Canadians found themselves unable to fit in either the White world or the world of their parents.
The colour of their skin named them as second class citizens within society at large, and they didn't have the skills sufficient to find steady employment. On the other hand they no longer had the traditions of their own people to turn to for solace, and they couldn't even talk to their parents any more as they no longer spoke the same language. With their identities stripped away, suffering the effects of sexual, emotional, and physical abuse, and having no means to earn a living, is it any wonder that they and subsequent generations should feel as if they have no future?
Richard Marcus is a long-haired Canadian iconoclast who writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees it at Leap In The Dark and Epic India Magazine.
- What Do Canada's Native Residential Schools And Barack Obama Have In Common?
- Published: April 30, 2008
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Politics
- Filed Under: Culture: Education, Culture: History, Culture: Religion, Culture: Society, Politics: Government, Politics: Law and Rights, Politics: Policy
- Part of a feature: Canadian Politics in Review
- Writer: Richard Marcus
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Comments
It's a wonderful insight into what was done in both Canada and the United States to their own citizens. The TRC is timely welcomed to heal past wounds. And I believe also it takes a person like Obama at the White House Office to bring about this sort of TRC.
Mr. Marcus: While I am very heartened and glad to read about the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, I feel a huge let-down when I see you have (unwittingly?) omitted the Native Peoples of the U.S. from your article. It would have been a natural, and obviously long-overdue, step to carry your picture of the experiences of Canada's Indians over into at least a token accounting of those of our original tribes here in America, and to include their needs for Truth and Reconciliation (I like to say those words - I think they should remain capitalized) alongside those of our black brothers and sisters.
I am so weary of this continuing widespread absentmindedness regarding those red people who have suffered every bit as much of deceipt, abuse and neglect at the hands of European invaders as have other minorities. Actually, their plight is still the most overlooked of serious problems among our citizens, in every state of the union - and continues today much as it has for hundreds of years. Please remember them as you (hopefully) expand your purview in future articles.
I feel compelled to add that there seems, herein, to be an undertone of judgement toward Mr. Obama that is unfair and undeserved; unfair in that no one should be held accountable for the choices of another (Wright), and undeserved because Mr. Obama has worked for twenty years for the betterment of minorities and the underpriveleged in community organizing and legislation in the areas of civil liberties, education, food programs, ethics reform, healthcare for kids, earned income-tax credit, etc., etc.. He has promised to create a position of Native American Advisor in his cabinet, and also to host an annual national Council of Tribal Leaders. Of course, it is ridiculous to assume that he would not also include African Americans in every aspect of his administration's program of healing and change. Why do you make this presumption? What are you in judgement of here? What are you afraid of?
Please be fair, help us to support the first real light of hope to come into the presidential election process in 40 years. We desperately need him. If, in your writing, you are truly invested in helping to create positive change in the world, then you must recognize this - and rather than project your fears - lend your support. I thank you.
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(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/76342)
Richard,
How human of you. Thank you.
Obama knows exactly what Wright is saying, he just cant acknowledge it, not in a land where there has never been a TRC or ever will be one, just over acted Hollywood approximations of simple minded theatrical Negros whaling about their mama and babies; no depth and no humanity revealed.