Indian Residential Schools, are a dark spot in the history of Canada. These schools were beginning to be established in the 1840s across Canada for over a century, until the last Residential School was closed in 1996. These educational institutes were constructed by the white population, were not all as they seemed to be. Residential schools were run by nuns and priests who forcibly took Indigenous children out of their homes, culture and traditions, and away from their loved ones to bring them to Residential Schools. The main goal of these schools was to assimilate the children into the more superior European Christian ways of life using any means necessary. In order to get the point across to the children, these officials used humiliation, punishment, and abuse, and had no remorse for their actions. This evidently shaped their childhood into a constant nightmare day after day. These so called educational institutes had minimal educational instruction besides learning English, however, labour tasks such as cleaning, and farming were seen as more important above curriculum, and with this, the schools implemented religious practices as well. Harriett Nahanee, age 60, expresses her experiences and concerns about the abuse at the United Church Native Residential School in Port Alberni in the years 1945-1950. Nahanee’s testimony was given to Reverend Kevin McNamee-Annett in North Vancouver on December 17, 1995, and outlines how shocking the past of these schools were. Throughout her testimony, Nahanee explicitly shows just how the schools affected her and the impact they left on her personally, as well as other school survivors, regarding their childhood and education.

Nahanee first explains her life before going to the school. She notes how her other siblings went to the school, but she was hidden so she would not have to attend. “My mother hid me… and I stayed hidden with relatives for five years… so I wouldn’t be taken to the residential school”[1]. Many families feared letting their children go to Residential Schools because they heard of what went on in the schools, whereas others were worried that by subjecting their children to these schools and its curriculum, it would force them to lose their culture and traditions. This notation is accurately represented by Nahanee’s testimony, “[my mother] hid me so that one of us would keep our culture, which is that we are keepers of the land”[2]. The fact that parents such as Nahanee’s mother went to great lengths to hide her from the Residential School officials shows how much she cared for her child and how she was brought up in terms of her education and ways of learning. This statement also suggests to the reader the importance of keeping the culture alive within their children throughout their childhood. However, with the threat of parents being put in jail if they refused to allow their children to attend the schools, it became inevitable for the children to attend. Nahanee states in her testimony that “my mother was sent a letter saying she’d go to jail unless I went to residential school”[3]. Once the parents received this letter and sent their children to these schools, all their culture, traditions, and childhood memories would be lost or faded due to what they would have to endure in the next years at these institutions.

Nahanee recollects how she was excited to attend the school primarily because she did not know that much English and she thought it would be good to learn because she had no written language. However, Nahanee notes that her “excitement changed quickly when we got to the school, since we were given immediate humiliation”[4]. This humiliation that the children were subjected to greatly affected how their childhood would be shaped throughout the years that they would be attending these schools. “We were deloused, DDT put in our hair, then it was shaved off [and] cod liver oil was forced down our throats”[5]. We were “expected to speak English only”[6] and not our native language because if we did so we would be punished. In addition to this, Nahanee says that they “weren’t allowed to laugh, and were beaten a lot, especially for laughing”[7]. This depiction of how children in the Residential Schools were treated allows us to better understand how they grew up in the schools and their lived experience of childhood. Their care free childhood before they came to the schools was supressed by the new rules enforced, which resulted in a terrible childhood for these children.

It seems from Nahanee’s testimony that a big part of childhood was humiliation, which also turned into punishment and abuse for children in these schools. Nahanee recalls how they would get beaten “with a conveyor belt strap three inches wide and three feet long [which was] hung on the cubicle wall of every floor in the school”[8]. The strap was one of the main weapons of authority over these children. The strap was used when any of the children disobeyed the rules of the school, such as speaking their language, or dancing and singing traditional songs[9], laughing, or not following religious practices such as bowing their heads when praying. Another method of punishment was to have “the supervisors [put] rocks in [the children’s] mouths if [they] spoke [their] own language”[10]. However, the most devastating and unforgettable punishment most of the children faced, according to Nahanee, was sexual abuse from the male officials within the schools. Nahanee can still recall her experiences with sexual abuse in the Port Alberni school. These experiences vastly affected her childhood while attending school. She explains how terrified she was all the time and how she “would run away and hide somewhere” if she heard one of the male officials coming[11]. To be a child with such a fear due to unnecessary circumstances truly shows how this affected the child and their childhood in these schools and how it continues to impact and influence their lives growing up.

Childhood was greatly affected while attending these schools. However, another aspect of these schools was the educational instruction the children received. Nahanee states in her testimony that “we didn’t learn anything; we just learned to labour… they only gave us two hours of school each day… the rest of the time we were the labourers in the school, washing walls and windows, doing all the chores”[12]. The fact that the schools such as the United Church Native Residential School that Nahanee went to only implemented a small amount of educational instruction, shows the lack of knowledge that these children received when they left the school as well as the lack of care the school had for the children who attended. The majority of the education the children received could possibly be through their labour activities, however, that was not the main aim in the beginning for establishing these schools. In addition to this, the children learned Christian religious practices such as praying and bowing, however for most, this would not help them in their life. The education children received in some Residential Schools was very little, and furthermore, these children could have received a more rich and influential education if they were educated at home on their land through their culture and traditions.

Indian Residential Schools are a shocking realization of how cruel people can be to others in Canada. These schools were established to be educational institutions for Indigenous children to learn ways of European Christian life. However, what most people do not know was what happened behind closed doors. The children were first forcibly taken from their homes and situated in these schools, where they were then humiliated, punished, and abused through the whole duration of attending. This greatly affected the children’s childhood and their lives later on. In addition to this, some schools barely gave the children an adequate education, aside from learning labour tasks and some religious practices. Harriett Nahanee’s testimony of her experience at the United Church Native Residential School in Port Alberni accurately supports these statements of Indian Residential Schools and how they vastly affected childhood and education.

 

Endnotes:

[1] Concerning abuse at the United Church Native Residential School, Port Alberni (1945-1950), Testimony of Harriett Nahanee, given to Rev. Kevin McNamee-Annett, North Vancouver, (December 14, 1995):1.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid., 2.

[10] Ibid., 3.

[11] Ibid., 1.

[12] Ibid., 3.

Bibliography:

Concerning abuse at the United Church Native Residential School, Port Alberni (1945-1950). Testimony of Harriett Nahanee, given to Rev. Kevin McNamee-Annett. North Vancouver, (December 14, 1995): 1-3.

Reflection:

The reason why I chose to add my Primary Document Analysis Essay into my ePortfolio is because it highlighted the main argument I wanted to address throughout my ePortfolio. It discusses the segregation and discrimination in terms of race of Indigenous children and how this effected their childhood and education. This analysis was on a Residential School survivor and explains her time in a school and can explain the schools effects on childhood and education. This analysis essay is good evidence to support my main argument because it directly related to aspects that I want to focus on, segregation and discrimination and how race plays a crucial part in this.

Header Image from: http://thechildrenremembered.ca/school-locations/alberni/