In Canada, residential school trauma continues to haunt survivors ‘shattered’ by years of abuse

“This visit will stir up a lot of emotions.” Four months after acknowledging the role of the Catholic Church in the forced enrollment of Indigenous children in residential schools in Canada, Pope Francis is due to meet with several of these communities during a stay which begins in Alberta on Sunday July 24 . The occasion to reiterate its official apologies, on the places where these populations were victims of violence for decades, says the Globe and Mail*.

This trip was organized after the discovery, in 2021, of hundreds of unmarked graves near former boarding schools. “Jam appalled by the shameful policies that have stolen indigenous children from their communities”, then reacted the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. He recognized the “Canada’s fault”thirteen years after the first official apology delivered by his predecessor, the Conservative Stephen Harper.

These establishments, for the most part managed by religious, were the central tool of a “system put in place by the Canadian federal government to tear Aboriginal children from their families, in order to ‘civilize’ and Christianize them”, explains Marie-Pierre Bousquet, director of the Native studies program at the Université de Montréal. Between 1880 and 1996, some 150,000 Métis, Inuit and First Nations (the designation of some groups of Aboriginal peoples in Canada) children were sent to 139 residential schools across the country. A qualified system “cultural genocide” by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which published a report in 2015 documenting the violence committed in these establishments.

After thousands of hearings, the TRC revealed how the compulsory schooling of natives from the age of 7, put in place in 1920, served to take these children away from their parents. As soon as they arrived, the residents were “dispossessed of their identity”, notes the anthropologist Marie-Pierre Bousquet. Their native names were replaced by French or English names. Wearing a uniform was compulsory and the hair, “a very important attribute in the culture of many of these communities”were cut short.

“We wanted to make them little whites”, sums up Natacha, a member of the Anishinabe nation. In the 1950s, his mother and several of his uncles and aunts were sent to boarding school in Saint-Marc-de-Figuery (Quebec).

“They were forbidden to speak their language and they were taught a version of history in which the natives were wicked, ignorant and ‘savages’ whom the missionaries came to ‘save’. The survivors all say how bad this racism and that contempt were rampant.”

Marie-Pierre Bousquet, anthropologist

at franceinfo

These children have also been victims of verbal, psychological or physical violence. “One of my aunts had her ear torn from being pulled hard”, testifies Natacha. His mother, “too old” to benefit from school lessons, did household chores for almost three years in the boarding school. “She saw her siblings being abused and repeatedly tried to warn my grandparentscontinues the 50-year-old. It resulted in her being beaten and spending whole days locked in a room alone, without food.”

This story is sadly common among survivors of residential schools. em>”I was constantly terrified, confirms one of them to the National Geographic*. I remember thinking, ‘Don’t get noticed,’ because I saw what they did to kids like that.”

Another survivor tells the Guardian* have been “thrown under a cold shower every night, sometimes after being raped”. “The living conditions varied according to the boarding schools but there were many cases of children suffering from malnutrition, victims of sexual violence and corporal punishment, insists Marie-Pierre Bousquet. In some institutions, we conducted medical experiments on these children, who were deprived of certain nutrients to observe the effects.

Another psychological violence: the children were totally cut off from their parents. To prevent any contact, they were taken to establishments several tens or even hundreds of kilometers from their community, underlines the Guardian*. Many have tried to flee the horror of residential schools to reunite with their families, according to National Geographic. But most were caught or died on the way, victims of drowning or hypothermia.

The fate of many other children remains unknown. The TRC estimates that 6,000 of them have “faded away”reports TV5 Monde. “When something happened to them, the boarding schools made no effort to notify their parents, especially when the latter were nomads, enlightens Marie-Pierre Bousquet. The bodies were not returned to the families and the children were buried in unmarked graves.”

In May 2021, the remains of 215 children were discovered on the site of the former boarding school in Kamloops (British Columbia), which was the largest in Canada. A month later, “715 unmarked graves” were found near Marieval, Saskatchewan.

In total, at least 4,000 natives died in these boarding schools, victims of accidents, violence or disease, estimates the TRC. “Several boarding schools were affected by epidemics, in particular tuberculosis, through sheer negligence. Sick children were left with those in good health, even though we already knew certain sanitary measures at the time”, explains Marie-Pierre Bousquet. At the beginning of the 1900s, a doctor appointed by the State had noted an average mortality rate of 25% in these schools, notes the Canadian Medical Association Journal*. In one establishment, this figure even reached 70%.

Natacha only realized the extent of the abuse in residential schools when the TRC began its work in 2008. “My mother had already spoken to me about it sometimes, when I was a teenager, but only when she was in crisis”she testifies, referring to the “psychological disorders” from which his mother suffered. “I thought she was delirious.” Véronique Rankin, also the daughter of a survivor, evokes the same “taboo”. “I had heard rumours, but it wasn’t until I started working as a tour guide in the reserve that I understood the horror of what had happened”explains the director of the indigenous association Wapikoni Mobile to franceinfo.

“The Commission empowered survivors to tell their truth. Now our communities need to understand what happened to them and how it affects all generations.”

Natacha, member of the Anishinaabe Nation

at franceinfo

“Many came back broken from residential schools and, in turn, their children also suffered this trauma”she insists. “I don’t speak the language of my ancestors, even if I know some wordsconfides Natacha bitterly. In a way, the boarding school achieved its purpose with my mother: we were brought up as white people, away from the reservation.” In communities where the transmission of culture is based on oral tradition, the ban on children speaking their mother tongue has had serious consequences. “Certain knowledge has been forgotten forever. Most indigenous languages, which are difficult to transmit, are in decline”warns Marie-Pierre Bousquet.

First Nations and Inuit, however, carry out a “colossal work to recover this knowledge”, according to the anthropologist. The Wapikoni Mobile association thus works to “revaluation of indigenous cultures” through film production. “There are also many educational initiatives to develop certain learning, especially languages”, adds Véronique Rankin. Within families, we also try to “to reclaim one’s culture”. “I spend a lot of time with my aunt Marianne. She introduces my children to the language and craftswelcomes Natacha. My mother, returned to the creator in 2001, did not have the chance to do so.”

For Véronique Rankin, these efforts must be supported by the Canadian authorities, especially financially. The forties also calls for the opening of the archives of the Catholic Church in Canada. “They could give us answers about our history, because the religious have documented the traditions of the natives a lot”she points out.

Many hope that these documents will make it possible to learn more about the fate of the thousands of disappeared. “Over the past two years, Canadians have understood that what happened in the residential schools concerns them all, and not only the natives”, believes Marie-Pierre Bousquet. The anthropologist calls for this awareness, which occurred “well after the work of the TRC”contribute to “lead to a more equitable society”.

* Links followed by an asterisk refer to content in English.