From the 1870s to the 1970s a process of assimilation was used in schools across Canada – this assimilation was to bring native children into a new way of life.
Today, Stephen Harper, the PM of Canada, apologised for this process from the floor of the House of Commons in Ottawa.
“The treatment of children in Indian residential schools is a sad chapter in our history,” Harper said in an apology on behalf of the government Wednesday. “Today, we recognize this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm and has no place in our country.”
This very public apology was witnessed by both the youngest and oldest remaining members of this school system.
The leader of the aboriginal people said:
“For our parents, our grandparents, great-grandparents and all of the generations which have preceded us, this day testifies to nothing less than the achievement of the impossible,” said Phil Fontaine, chief of Canada’s Assembly of First Nations, which represents more than 630 communities of indigenous people.
Fontaine sat with other Indian leaders and a group that included both the oldest and youngest known survivors of the residential schools.
06/12/2008 at 2:29 AM
Will, thanks for posting this. There is a controversy going on in the US now, because the “Indian” schools, previously used as you’ve described, are now being converted to schools with native staff, teaching indigenous languages before they die out of use. But, some are still lobbying to close the schools as separatist. I don’t know the answer, but continue to believe that students be allowed to choose.
06/11/2008 at 10:31 PM
Why is it that the American government has not come forward with an apology to its indigenous people? They committed something close to genocide.