The Residential School Experience

Que 2. What are some of the lasting effects of residential schools on the survivors, their families, and communities? In seeing and hearing the story of Chanie Wenjack and his family, what impacts you the most?

Solution

The incident that happens to the people by the system is unforgettable it led to breaking their freedom, desire, and choices in order to live freely. The system just wanted to follow what their ancestors left behind. The saddest part of this practice was that they chose children for this.

The picture of Chanie Wenjack was very impactful it just showed the history of the country

The lasting effect of the residential schools was very bad on the survivors, their communities, and their families (Hackett, et al., 2016).

The physical and health-related outcomes that were linked to the residential schooling possess poorer general and increased rates of infectious and chronic disease, and self-rated health. It badly affected their emotional well-being and mental health which included depression, mental distress, addictive behaviour, stress, and even suicidal behaviours.

Many of them went through forced assimilation and mental, sexual, and physical abuse in the residential schools.

And these types of tortures left a great impact on the community and families of the survivors.

In the residential schools, they were not nurtured with love which made them the type of people who practice living a mis constructive type of life.

When they grow up in a harsh environment then their perspective becomes like this only many of them lack parental skills. And most are reported by the families conducting domestic violence (Hackett, et al., 2016).

It badly influenced the life of the indigenous people they lost their culture, their language and even their tradition.

Que 3. Using the idea of the “sociological imagination” as your framework, how does the history of residential schools continue to impact Indigenous peoples and their communities?

Solution

Social imagination refers to the ability that helps to see the context that shapes the decision of the individual and the decision that is made by others. And it is very important to society as it helps in better identifying the aspects of the society and their question that are opposed to living passively with it.

The idea of starting the residential schools taken by the government for the indigenous people was very wrong they tried to convert them into Christians and tried to demolish their own culture, social behaviour, and values (Milloy, 2017).

It leads the indigenous people to think that they are a minority whose culture, language, and values were inferior compared to the rest of the society.

They struggled with the feelings related to inferiority, they felt injustice and suffer from the emotion of unfairness.

They feel that they are not treated as equal to the other natives and this type of feeling makes their morale down (Milloy, 2017).

It was a long practice that was in operation for several years and still possesses some of its impacts that will take time to heal and till that time many indigenous families suffer with this mentality of unfairness and inequality.

Que 4 What is one thing you could do/change to support reconciliation in Canada?

Solution

To support the reconciliation there are many things that can be done in the favour of the indigenous people. First, we can join a group that supports the indigenous people and work for them to support their culture. By joining these programs or communities we will be able to study the cultural beliefs and promote them to spread equality (MacDonald & Markides, 2019).

Rather than this, we can ask the government to make some changes in the policies and procedures that support the indigenous people as they suffered many losses based on residential schools, prohibiting their culture and values, loss of land, etc.

And can ask the government in supporting their cultural history and even incorporate them in the syllabus so that they can feel proud of their culture and get to know about it more this will also help the other youth of the country to understand their cultural belief, these practices will help and support them in living the society with dignity, there should be sessions in which the teaches focuses on the people belonging to this community who have achieved heights in their career so that other indigenous people also feel motivated and try to perform better in their career. The several departments of the country should try to promote their cultural beliefs so that they feel valued and can recover from the scars that are left due to the practices that have been followed earlier like residential schooling (MacDonald & Markides, 2019).

References

Hackett, C., Feeny, D., & Tompa, E. (2016). Canada’s residential school system: measuring the intergenerational impact of familial attendance on health and mental health outcomes. J Epidemiol Community Health, 70(11), 1096-1105.

MacDonald, J., & Markides, J. (2019). Duoethnography for reconciliation: Learning through conversations. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 65(2).

Milloy, J. S. (2017). A national crime: The Canadian government and the residential school system (Vol. 11). Univ. of Manitoba Press.

Reply to the posts

Post 1

Yes, as per the opinion described in the post the indigenous people really suffered a lot and that was due to the wrong decision that was made by the roman catholic church and the government. It is a basic human right that is provided by nature that allows a human to respect their cultural beliefs and nobody has the right to violate their rights.

The government tried to violate their rights by trying to change their religious beliefs and turn them into Christians which created a sense of disgust in them and about their practices which made them feel inferior and small compared to others. It made their morale low and impacted their way of dealing with others. Many of the people who lived in the residential schools grew up as harsh individuals because they have lived in such an environment that was violent and made them like this only and this is the reason why their families and communities suffer from it a lot.

The reconciliation process is really important to practice by the individuals of the country and the government so that the indigenous people can recover themselves from the scars that were given to them in their older days.

Post 2

After watching this story of a little boy, I am personally very touched from inside and as well as feeling very bad for the people who had to go through all this suffering I can’t imagine how badly these practices would have impacted their whole life and as well as the life of their families. People should understand that in every human there is a god inside and should respect the beliefs and culture of everybody.

In the country, indigenous people suffered a lot in some places they even to do not have access to clean water. And are not provided with some resources that are provided to other people.

And still, in the country, these practices have not stopped I totally agree with the fact that still the women and girls of the indigenous community get kidnapped and disappear unknowingly.

As per the Sociological imagination these practices really created a very bad impact on the lives of the indigenous people in their practices, living, behaviour it impacted everything.

And now to get them recovered from all these factors the individual of the country and the government need to support them so that they can come out of all the mis happening that happened to them in the past.