Abstract

This paper will examine on why the enforcement of residential schools was an act of genocide. This paper will analyze the attempts that were made in order to make the First Nation group as “civilized” or “proper” as possible, in this sense this paper will focus on how the Indigenous people were completely stripped out of their identity. This paper will also discuss how the use of education was supposed to be vital for the policy, but it turned out how the Canadians were more concerned about assimilating Aboriginals into English Canadians rather than ensuring they receive an education. I will discuss the ultimate goal of the Europeans and what they were trying to gain and what was the reason behind this act of injustice. This paper will show how all this occurred through the act of cultural genocide against the First Nations People.

Keywords: Residential Schools, Cultural Genocide, Culture, Education. First Nations, Natives, Canada, Genocide

Residential Schools: An Act of Cultural Genocide

There have been numerous events that have truly presented groups that have endured the and have suffered from power and being dominated by a different group. It is often the case that certain groups are mainly destroyed, or even worse ruin by other groups in order to try to washout their unique community for their own better good. These actions are precisely there to destroy their true elements that represent themselves, for instance their language, tradition, and values which differentiates from other groups. This act is mainly known Cultural Genocide. Researchers have contended that the Indian Residential Schools in Canada is responsible for the act of cultural genocide they have committed against the native community. Indian Residential Schools in Canada were set up for the deliberate motivation behind social annihilation, and this has been denied by Canada for its very own gain. The term Residential schools was introduced to the educational system by the Canadian government and also by the holy churches. The residential Schools system harmed indigenous children by removing them from their families, removing them from their language, exposing them to sexual and physical abuse. They were trying to remove the “Indian in them”, and to try to lose their identity of who they are. With all this being, due to the enforcement of residential schools the government of Canada and the holy churches actions are a pure indication of cultural genocide by taking advantage of a system built for “educational purposes”, instead an attempt was made against the indigenous children to cleanse them of their identity and enforce their own cultures and assimilating them into the dominant European/Canadian society.