Impacts

Residential Schools made promises to the Indigenous communities to teach their children reading, writing, and a quality education. Instead, these schools were a form of cultural genocide and forced assimilation of Indigenous Peoples in Canada. If parents didn’t send their children willingly to these Residential Schools they were threatened with jail time or physical violence; some children needing to travel far from home to attend travelled by boat and/or plane. 

Once the children arrived at the school they were strip searched, had their belongings taken away (clothes and any other personal items). Children were then washed from head to toe with baking soda, and had their hair cut short.

From day one children were forbidden to speak their language; this was enforced with threats and often physical violence. According to Raymond Hill, a Cree student from the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, “I lost my language. They threatened us with a strap if we spoke about it, and within a year, I lost all of it. They said they thought we were talking about them” (TRC Executive Summary, 82). Some students were forced to eat soap if they spoke their Indigenous language at school or they could be physically hurt. These are some examples of the various ways teachers attempted to force assimilation onto their students. These acts stripped Indigenous children of their cultural identities.

Shirley Horn, a Residential School Survivor, speaks on the impacts of trauma, loss and family because of the Residential Schools. 

Video Resource: Namwayut: We are all one. Truth and reconciliation in Canada