Council Member
Posts: 1,790 
June 12th, 2008, 04:04 PM
Richard WagameseCitizen Special
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Residential schools are Canada's shame. For roughly 100 years, their aim was to break the back of family, community, history and spirituality. Their aim was to end Canada's "Indian problem," to invoke the might of the right of the white to eradicate a people's sense of themselves and their rightful place in the history of the country.
Some call it genocide. Others call it a holocaust. More refined thinkers label it mere assimilation. Whatever the label, the grievous hurt that was inflicted on Canadian consciousness festers even now, long after the last of the schools was closed.
Now a touring commission will allow the survivors of that system to tell their stories. When the federal government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission begins its nationwide trek, Canadians will brace themselves for an onslaught of woe and terror, neglect and secret invasions of mind, body and spirit unparalleled in this country. They are prepared for bleak disclosure.
But there are other stories that need to be told as well. Stories like my mother's. My mother is 75 and attended the Cecilia Jeffery School outside Kenora, Ontario. In the 60-some years that have passed since her experience, she has become a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She lives in a small house on a reserve outside Kenora.
When you enter my mother's house, there's one thing more than anything that strikes you. It's incredibly neat. She cleans fastidiously. Every surface in her home gleams and everything is organized and arranged to make the most out of the living area. There is a cross on the wall, a Bible by her bed and a picture of Jesus in the living room. It's a home not unlike the home of any grandmother anywhere in Canada.
She credits the residential school experience with teaching her domestic skills. While she was at the school, she learned how to cook, sew, clean, launder and take care of a home. Her house on the reserve is known as the neatest and cleanest and even though she's an elder, she takes care to maintain it. Her lawn is the only cultured lawn on the whole reserve, shorn, immaculate, stunning.
My mother has never spoken to me of abuse or any catastrophic experience at the school. She only speaks of learning valuable things that she went on to use in her everyday life, things that made her life more efficient, effective and empowered.
Why is this important? Well, because the Truth and Reconciliation Commission needs to hear those kinds of stories too. As a journalist since 1979, I've heard people credit residential schools with the foundation for learning that allowed them to pursue successful academic careers. Others tell of being introduced to skills that became lifelong careers, and still others, like my mother, talk of being introduced to a faith that guided the rest of their lives.
Certainly, there are horrendous experiences. Certainly, the truth of those soul-killing incursions needs to see the light of day. Certainly too, it is a necessary step in a nationwide healing. But if the focus of the commission is truth and the goal is reconciliation, then someone needs to begin by being conciliatory. The opportunity for native people to lead and to show Canada their heart is now.
Because if, say, 150,000 people attended a residential school, not every single one of them was sexually or physically abused. To try to claim that would be outlandish and no one would buy it. Instead, let the commission hear from those for whom the residential school experience might have been a godsend, or at the least, a steppingstone to a more empowered future.
Because those kinds of stories happened too. They happened to my mother and others like her. To be brave and go against the flow and tell Canada that for some native people, the residential school experience was not exclusively a horror show is to tell Canada that we have grown as nations of people, that we recognize that truth means a whole vision and not just a selective memory.
If native people use this opportunity to show that they are capable of seeing beyond hurts and invasions and rampant disregard for our lives and future, we show our neighbours that the heart of us was never broken, that we were never conquered, that we have not and will never be assimilated, and that we have retained our dignity despite everything that might have happened to us.
Tell all of the stories. The good along with the bad. Lead by example and use this opportunity to create harmony, to create a more balanced future for all of us.
Such is honesty. Such is truth. Such is the foundation of forgiveness and such are the bones of reconciliation.
Richard WagameseCitizen Special
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Residential schools are Canada's shame. For roughly 100 years, their aim was to break the back of family, community, history and spirituality. Their aim was to end Canada's "Indian problem," to invoke the might of the right of the white to eradicate a people's sense of themselves and their rightful place in the history of the country.
Some call it genocide. Others call it a holocaust. More refined thinkers label it mere assimilation. Whatever the label, the grievous hurt that was inflicted on Canadian consciousness festers even now, long after the last of the schools was closed.
Now a touring commission will allow the survivors of that system to tell their stories. When the federal government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission begins its nationwide trek, Canadians will brace themselves for an onslaught of woe and terror, neglect and secret invasions of mind, body and spirit unparalleled in this country. They are prepared for bleak disclosure.
But there are other stories that need to be told as well. Stories like my mother's. My mother is 75 and attended the Cecilia Jeffery School outside Kenora, Ontario. In the 60-some years that have passed since her experience, she has become a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She lives in a small house on a reserve outside Kenora.
When you enter my mother's house, there's one thing more than anything that strikes you. It's incredibly neat. She cleans fastidiously. Every surface in her home gleams and everything is organized and arranged to make the most out of the living area. There is a cross on the wall, a Bible by her bed and a picture of Jesus in the living room. It's a home not unlike the home of any grandmother anywhere in Canada.
She credits the residential school experience with teaching her domestic skills. While she was at the school, she learned how to cook, sew, clean, launder and take care of a home. Her house on the reserve is known as the neatest and cleanest and even though she's an elder, she takes care to maintain it. Her lawn is the only cultured lawn on the whole reserve, shorn, immaculate, stunning.
My mother has never spoken to me of abuse or any catastrophic experience at the school. She only speaks of learning valuable things that she went on to use in her everyday life, things that made her life more efficient, effective and empowered.
Why is this important? Well, because the Truth and Reconciliation Commission needs to hear those kinds of stories too. As a journalist since 1979, I've heard people credit residential schools with the foundation for learning that allowed them to pursue successful academic careers. Others tell of being introduced to skills that became lifelong careers, and still others, like my mother, talk of being introduced to a faith that guided the rest of their lives.
Certainly, there are horrendous experiences. Certainly, the truth of those soul-killing incursions needs to see the light of day. Certainly too, it is a necessary step in a nationwide healing. But if the focus of the commission is truth and the goal is reconciliation, then someone needs to begin by being conciliatory. The opportunity for native people to lead and to show Canada their heart is now.
Because if, say, 150,000 people attended a residential school, not every single one of them was sexually or physically abused. To try to claim that would be outlandish and no one would buy it. Instead, let the commission hear from those for whom the residential school experience might have been a godsend, or at the least, a steppingstone to a more empowered future.
Because those kinds of stories happened too. They happened to my mother and others like her. To be brave and go against the flow and tell Canada that for some native people, the residential school experience was not exclusively a horror show is to tell Canada that we have grown as nations of people, that we recognize that truth means a whole vision and not just a selective memory.
If native people use this opportunity to show that they are capable of seeing beyond hurts and invasions and rampant disregard for our lives and future, we show our neighbours that the heart of us was never broken, that we were never conquered, that we have not and will never be assimilated, and that we have retained our dignity despite everything that might have happened to us.
Tell all of the stories. The good along with the bad. Lead by example and use this opportunity to create harmony, to create a more balanced future for all of us.
Such is honesty. Such is truth. Such is the foundation of forgiveness and such are the bones of reconciliation.
Council Member
Posts: 1,670
June 12th, 2008, 04:07 PM
Margaret MacMillan: Patrick, I had a chance to watch the prime minister's apology for the residential schools and the subsequent speeeches. I wish I were in Canada to take part in a moving moment in Canadian history. I hope, as I am sure almost all Canadians do, that as a society we can collectively start to tackle the problems that so many aboriginal communities face.
But, please, let the apology not become an icon, something that we pull out from time to time and admire and then put away again. Let it not be something that makes us feel good about ourselves so that we can avoid thinking about the things that should shame us.
Margaret MacMillan: Patrick, I had a chance to watch the prime minister's apology for the residential schools and the subsequent speeeches. I wish I were in Canada to take part in a moving moment in Canadian history. I hope, as I am sure almost all Canadians do, that as a society we can collectively start to tackle the problems that so many aboriginal communities face.But, please, let the apology not become an icon, something that we pull out from time to time and admire and then put away again. Let it not be something that makes us feel good about ourselves so that we can avoid thinking about the things that should shame us.
June 12th, 2008, 04:54 PM
Quoting Walter
In my family, you are expected to work at apologizing until what you broke is fixed (the black eye fades, you pay to replace the toy you broke, or the hurt feelings have subsided). I don't know how we should expect to do things as a country, but, so long as people are alive who instituted these policies, and people are alive who suffered under them, I don't think we get to shrug it off and say 'okay, we're over it now', until those who were hurt do so. I wish there were a 'right answer' for it, a formula for fixing abuse and molestation, attempted assimilation. But there really doesn't seem to be.
How often do we have to apologize? In 1998 Jane Stewart made a $350,000,000.00 apology. Is there a dollar amount to the current apology?
Council Member
Posts: 1,670
June 12th, 2008, 05:08 PM
Quoting karrie
Sorry Karrie but even if the Libs were in power I would criticize them for something like that. The Native Indian in Canada is an endangered species.
I can't help but be jaded now when reading your posts. You've shown such an irrational level of hatred for anything 'CON', that I can't help but think that you're views aren't actually your views, they're just whatever you can dredge up to hate about any action taken by the current government. The jaded side of me reads your posts and automatically deduces that, if it were anyone but Harper in power right now, you'd have been applauding them having the guts to give an apology on top of the reparation payments that went out.
But, maybe that's just me.
But, maybe that's just me.
June 12th, 2008, 05:18 PM
Second of all, they're experiencing greater population growth than any other segment of Canadian population the last I heard.
Quoting Socrates the Greek
FIRST OF ALL... Native Canadians are not a separate species, and I'd appreciate if you don't talk about them like they're something separate from us. They are people.
The Native Idian in Canada is an endangered species.
Second of all, they're experiencing greater population growth than any other segment of Canadian population the last I heard.
Council Member
Posts: 1,670
June 12th, 2008, 05:21 PM
Quoting karrie
Karrie I have always respected the Native Indian, they are people with deep spiritual values. We are all species of this planet.
FIRST OF ALL... Native Canadians are not a separate species, and I'd appreciate if you don't talk about them like they're something separate from us. They are people.
Second of all, they're experiencing greater population growth than any other segment of Canadian population the last I heard.
Second of all, they're experiencing greater population growth than any other segment of Canadian population the last I heard.
Genius
Posts: 768
June 12th, 2008, 05:24 PM
Do you think some of that money might be used to set up more casinos in Alberta where people can feed their addictions of gambling and smoking indoors while snubbing their noses at the law? Wouldn't that be grand! We could have our own little LV strip. Hey, maybe brothels can be built too.
ETA: and experience deep spiritual values too, at the casinos, with the smoking and gambling.
Do you think some of that money might be used to set up more casinos in Alberta where people can feed their addictions of gambling and smoking indoors while snubbing their noses at the law? Wouldn't that be grand! We could have our own little LV strip. Hey, maybe brothels can be built too.
ETA: and experience deep spiritual values too, at the casinos, with the smoking and gambling.
NHL Hockey Insider
Posts: 3,583
Location: Vancouver Island
Location: Vancouver Island
June 12th, 2008, 05:31 PM
something 'less' or 'more'. WE ARE SORRY, aren't we?
Quoting Socrates the Greek
It's a 'simple' apology, nothing more, unless, as I read here, people want to twist it into The apology was nothing but another session of lip service. BIG F UCKING JOKE. The Natives who have been affected by this need financial compensation not BULL S!HT ON TOP OF BULL S!HT. How can it be, you rip someone off from their youth and completely disowner their human existence and some idiot PM stops short from sincerely showing remorse by simply saying we are sorry and sorry again. That is a f joke.
The only time one can move on from something like this is to be financially compensated. Arar got $10,000,000from the Feds for wrongfully classified as a terrorist. Why is an Indian worth so much less?
The only time one can move on from something like this is to be financially compensated. Arar got $10,000,000from the Feds for wrongfully classified as a terrorist. Why is an Indian worth so much less?
something 'less' or 'more'. WE ARE SORRY, aren't we?
Council Member
Posts: 1,670
June 12th, 2008, 05:47 PM
If I am not mistaken the casinos were build by the provincial Governments while the feds say keep the profits coming. The casino became a pass time for many Indians on the reserve. We must never forget that the Native Indian was first given Alcohol to drink before water by the white man way back then. As for smoking cigarettes human beings around the globe for many years believed that smoking was like drinking tea. A habit that proved fatal for all users from all skin pigmentations.
Quoting Ariadne
I am glad you make that point Ariadne;
Do you think some of that money might be used to set up more casinos in Alberta where people can feed their addictions of gambling and smoking indoors while snubbing their noses at the law? Wouldn't that be grand! We could have our own little LV strip. Hey, maybe brothels can be built too.
ETA: and experience deep spiritual values too, at the casinos, with the smoking and gambling.
ETA: and experience deep spiritual values too, at the casinos, with the smoking and gambling.
If I am not mistaken the casinos were build by the provincial Governments while the feds say keep the profits coming. The casino became a pass time for many Indians on the reserve. We must never forget that the Native Indian was first given Alcohol to drink before water by the white man way back then. As for smoking cigarettes human beings around the globe for many years believed that smoking was like drinking tea. A habit that proved fatal for all users from all skin pigmentations.
Grossly Underrated
Posts: 6,172
Location: In the bush somewhere near Sudbury
Location: In the bush somewhere near Sudbury
June 12th, 2008, 05:57 PM
Gambling was part of aboriginal culture long before the discovery of America. Further, tobacco is native to North and South America. Smoking of same is believed to have started around 3000 BC. Booze? That's a curse introduced to get furs for as little as possible - all in the name of profit.
Residential schools may have had good intentions in teaching First Nations people a new way - but they went about it in entirely the wrong way with the idea one could erase the culture and introduce your own - then entrust the process to they who think they are God.
Gambling was part of aboriginal culture long before the discovery of America. Further, tobacco is native to North and South America. Smoking of same is believed to have started around 3000 BC. Booze? That's a curse introduced to get furs for as little as possible - all in the name of profit.
Residential schools may have had good intentions in teaching First Nations people a new way - but they went about it in entirely the wrong way with the idea one could erase the culture and introduce your own - then entrust the process to they who think they are God.
Council Member
Posts: 1,670
June 12th, 2008, 05:58 PM
Sorry Karrie I respect women every day of the year. I am not misogynistic Madam Julie Couillard has a history which is not a big deal to the Conservatives, but it is a big deal for the security of Canada. The madam loves to jump into beds like a flea. Both Conservative ministers love to roll around the bed sheets with a flea bag, while that doesn’t say much for their private life’s.
Quoting karrie
apparently I missed something in the news. If I'd known there were group sex stories, I'd have been all over that! lol. And she has a name Socrates. 'Yelling' that she's madam biker big tits chick is more than just a little bit rude and misogynistic.
Sorry Karrie I respect women every day of the year. I am not misogynistic Madam Julie Couillard has a history which is not a big deal to the Conservatives, but it is a big deal for the security of Canada. The madam loves to jump into beds like a flea. Both Conservative ministers love to roll around the bed sheets with a flea bag, while that doesn’t say much for their private life’s.
Council Member
Posts: 1,670
June 12th, 2008, 06:01 PM
Isn’t that what Hitler wanted to do? Turn the human race into white, blond, and blue eyed.
Quoting lone wolf
Gambling was part of aboriginal culture long before the discovery of America. Further, tobacco is native to North and South America. Smoking of same is believed to have started around 3000 BC. Booze? That's a curse introduced to get furs for as little as possible - all in the name of profit.
Residential schools may have had good intentions in teaching First Nations people a new way - but they went about it in entirely the wrong way with the idea one could erase the culture and introduce your own - then entrust the process to they who think they are God.
Residential schools may have had good intentions in teaching First Nations people a new way - but they went about it in entirely the wrong way with the idea one could erase the culture and introduce your own - then entrust the process to they who think they are God.
Isn’t that what Hitler wanted to do? Turn the human race into white, blond, and blue eyed.
Grossly Underrated
Posts: 6,172
Location: In the bush somewhere near Sudbury
Location: In the bush somewhere near Sudbury
June 12th, 2008, 06:06 PM
Woof!
Quoting Socrates the Greek
Sock.... You need help.... Isn’t that what Hitler wanted to do? Turn the human race into white, blond, and blue eyed.
Woof!
June 12th, 2008, 06:09 PM
Quoting Socrates the Greek
That's what Hitler wanted, but it's not the same thing. I'm sure you can grasp the difference between eradication and assimilation. Falling back on Hitler comparisons everytime anything racial comes up is weak. Note that I didn't compare you to Hitler for implying that natives are a different species, but I could have.
Isn’t that what Hitler wanted to do? Turn the human race into white, blond, and blue eyed.
Genius
Posts: 768
June 12th, 2008, 07:21 PM
If that's the culture of first nation - addiction feeding establishments - are we really any further ahead? Are those first nations just fooling us again ... first they want alcohol for fur, and now they want casinos for "first nation spiritualism".
Quoting Socrates the Greek
I went to high school in this little town outside of Calgary. I remember mornings where I was re-routed after getting off the school bus because there was a deceased drunken aboriginal or first nations person on the sidewalk in front of the school doors. I remember going for lunch and seeing children in the car while their parents drank the afternoon away in the bar. The children were still in the car several hours later. People in the town would find sleeping first nation people in the backseat of their unlocked cars when they went to work in the morning. Now, we have a casino opening up just outside of Calgary ready to inject that fix that people need, to gamble and smoke, flipping the bird at the law. This is interesting, to say the least. I read about the secret cultural values of the first nation people, but hey, what are they ... what exactly are we preserving ... cuz when I look at action rather than words, I see casinos that don't have to adhere to the laws of the province - and they prey on addictions; sucking money out of people that can usually least afford it. I am glad you make that point Ariadne;
If I am not mistaken the casinos were build by the provincial Governments while the feds say keep the profits coming. The casino became a pass time for many Indians on the reserve. We must never forget that the Native Indian was first given Alcohol to drink before water by the white man way back then. As for smoking cigarettes human beings around the globe for many years believed that smoking was like drinking tea. A habit that proved fatal for all users from all skin pigmentations.
If I am not mistaken the casinos were build by the provincial Governments while the feds say keep the profits coming. The casino became a pass time for many Indians on the reserve. We must never forget that the Native Indian was first given Alcohol to drink before water by the white man way back then. As for smoking cigarettes human beings around the globe for many years believed that smoking was like drinking tea. A habit that proved fatal for all users from all skin pigmentations.
If that's the culture of first nation - addiction feeding establishments - are we really any further ahead? Are those first nations just fooling us again ... first they want alcohol for fur, and now they want casinos for "first nation spiritualism".
Genius
Posts: 768
June 12th, 2008, 07:27 PM
Are we to believe that children in first nation homes were being well fed, attending school on a daily basis, participating in extracurricular spiritual or music, sports, etc. activities, and still the government determined that they should be removed from their homes?
Quoting Socrates the Greek
Are these the same old tired Catholic residential schools that we heard about before, or are there newly identified persons associated with the schools that are guilty of something? Is the fact that children were put in foster care a crime? If so, what conditions were they living in prior to being removed to foster care? If it's all about the spirituality of the first nation that these children lost, do we know that these values would have been learned had they not been removed? Should some of the blame be placed on the parents that were not providing safe, spiritually nurturing, and caring environments? Isn’t that what Hitler wanted to do? Turn the human race into white, blond, and blue eyed.
Are we to believe that children in first nation homes were being well fed, attending school on a daily basis, participating in extracurricular spiritual or music, sports, etc. activities, and still the government determined that they should be removed from their homes?
Council Member
Posts: 1,706
Location: Alberta, Canada
Location: Alberta, Canada
June 12th, 2008, 07:33 PM
You don't have a clue, do you?
Quoting Ariadne
Are these the same old tired Catholic residential schools that we heard about before, or are there newly identified persons associated with the schools that are guilty of something? Is the fact that children were put in foster care a crime? If so, what conditions were they living in prior to being removed to foster care? If it's all about the spirituality of the first nation that these children lost, do we know that these values would have been learned had they not been removed? Should some of the blame be placed on the parents that were not providing safe, spiritually nurturing, and caring environments?
Are we to believe that children in first nation homes were being well fed, attending school on a daily basis, participating in extracurricular spiritual or music, sports, etc. activities, and still the government determined that they should be removed from their homes?
Are we to believe that children in first nation homes were being well fed, attending school on a daily basis, participating in extracurricular spiritual or music, sports, etc. activities, and still the government determined that they should be removed from their homes?
You don't have a clue, do you?
