Addressing the legacy of residential schools means supporting native families, not necessarily their band leaders
NationalPost.com – Full Comment
March 31, 2014. Jonathan Kay
In Monday’s edition of the Globe & Mail, Shawn Atleo, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, described his mixed emotions as he attended the final public event held by the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Edmonton.
On one hand, he described the reaction of his grandmother, who “told me about a dream she had of trying to turn a dark page, a heavy page. Too heavy.” But then Mr. Atleo decisively stated: “We must not burden another generation with anger and pain.” The message of his op-ed seems clear: As much pain as Residential Schools caused many First Nations people, we should not encourage young aboriginals to dwell incessantly on the injustices of the past. The whole point of the truth and reconciliation process has been to help these communities gain a sense of closure. If that project is to be a success, their members also must stop thinking of themselves primarily as victims.
Testimony at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, like most journalistic coverage of the issue, has focused on the worst examples of abuse. But the truth is that the system was run by a patchwork of religious and government officials, and there was no universal residential-school experience for native students. Some schools were infamous. Others were humane.
In fact, some First Nations communities, when given the choice in the mid-20thcentury, voted to keep their local residential schools open, because they wanted their children to learn the math and language skills that would permit them gain a livelihood. Many children at residential schools also received life-saving medical treatment — including medication for tuberculosis — that was unavailable to First Nations people still living in the bush or in remote settlements.
But even taking into account those students who had relatively positive experiences at residential school, the system produced an overall effect that was negative: A whole generation of First Nations youngsters grew up without any knowledge of how a nuclear family is supposed to work, of how loving parents are supposed to raise well-loved children.
In First Nations communities with a residential-school legacy, mothers and fathers struggled to recover the lost wisdom of how families are supposed to work
When they began having their own children, residential-school graduates often lacked proper parenting skills — because the only model they’d observed was the cold institutional environment they’d experienced themselves. Nor could they turn to their neighbours for assistance, because in most cases they’d gone through the exact same experience themselves.
The idea of the nuclear family is fundamental to our society that many of us don’t think of “parenthood” as a skill at all, but rather something that is innate. But it isn’t innate: We all model our own parenting style, at least to a certain extent, on that which we observed as children. And in First Nations communities with a residential-school legacy, mothers and fathers struggled to recover the lost wisdom of how families are supposed to work. In many cases, that meant skipping back several generations to grandparents or grand-grandparents. These elders sometimes became de facto parents themselves if the real parents became lost to drugs, alcohol or destitution.
“Children are at the very centre of our cultures, our homes and families,” Mr. Atleo writes, getting to the essence of the issue. “We can once again capture that deep care and concern for children.” In furtherance of this worthy goal, he declares that “We will take control of our lives, lands and government.”
These are familiar demands from aboriginal leaders. And there is no doubt that some forms of progress really will require a devolution of powers to bands. But rebuilding First Nations families is primarily a social project, not a political project. And in some ways, the emphasis on treaty rights has actually retarded the healing of First Nations families — because the cash bounty has encouraged the transformation of reserves into miniature low-employment welfare states. No matter what one’s skin colour, dependency and idleness always encourage substance abuse, a lack of respect for education, local political corruption and other pathologies that prevent the creation of healthy communities.
In the short run, at least, good schools, good jobs and well-funded social services will be far more important in addressing the legacy of residential schools than ambitious political agendas. Until First Nations communities are full of healthy families, other forms of progress will be difficult.
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Tags: child care, Indigenous, standard of living
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Many aspects of this article I strongly agree with, however I do not agree with all of it. In the article Mr. Atleo stated “We must not burden another generation with anger and pain.” That itself is a very powerful statement, one I agree with, however the generational burden is not as easily eradicated. This burden on First Nations (FN) people has a much more profound effect even to individuals who are not the primary victims. In historical FN communities Elders passed on the teachings and ways of life to the youth and adults loved and cared for the children. Everyone had an important role within their communities that was essential to future generations. Children learnt the teachings and later became the elders passing on their life long teachings to a whole new generation of youth. This cycle was, and continues to be, important to their spiritual and cultural selves. Residential schools, the 60s scoop, were methods that unfortunately were almost successful in their ventures to kill the Indian in the child. For over 100 years teachings, cultural practices, and families were torn apart. Cultural teachings and beliefs were denigrated, generation after generation they lost sight of what once was. Broken, abused, segregated children, torn parental figures were all looking for ways to cope with their loss of purpose. They didn’t have a chance to love and or be loved, teachings were not passed down leading to a cycle of intergenerational abuse.
As an individual who is somewhat familiar with FN cultural teaching I believe we need to act now to preserve the cultural teachings and ways of life from the limited knowledgeable elders left. This will take some time but with dedication it is possible rebuild their circle of cultural teachings for future generations. John Kay (2014) wrote “Rebuilding First Nations families is primarily a social project, not a political project”, Although Justin Trudeau is fully committed to rebuilding broken bridges with these communities, financial injections aren’t the answer to addressing a decade of cultural destruction. The best way to mend this pathway with First Nations is to allow them to rebuild their cultural practices, and help them to rebuild it by ensuring we are doing what we can to encourage that the teachings are passed down from elders.