How a generation lost its talk (fwd)

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Last updated at 7:56 AM on 08/10/07

How a generation lost its talk

This is the second in a five-part series exploring the Mi'kmaq nation
specifically and matters affecting aboriginal people in general and will
appear in The Daily News every Monday of Mi'kmaq History Month this
October. This week: residential schools

CANDY PALMATER
The Daily News
http://www.hfxnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=69392&sc=89

[photo inset - Mi'kmaq girls take part in a sewing lesson at Shubenacadie
Residential School in 1929.]

"I lost my talk. The talk you took away when I was a little girl at
Shubenacadie school."

Those are the opening lines of a well-known poem by Mi'kmaq poet Rita Joe.
With those few simple words, Joe gave voice to so many people across Canada
who lost their "talk," - and so much more - at Indian residential schools.

Rita Joe passed away on March 20, 2007. Unfortunately, she wasn't here to
see the Canadian government 1/2nally acknowledge her experiences at the
residential school.

After years and years of mediating, healing, consulting and negotiation, the
Canadian government has 1/2nally signed and implemented a settlement
agreement with the survivors of the residential-school system.

This begins closure on a chapter of Canadian history that began so many
years ago. In the early 1800s, the government began grappling with what
they referred to as "the Indian problem."

History has shown us that the government took a three-pronged approach to
this so-called problem: christianization, isolation and assimilation.

Missionaries were among some of the 1/2rst immigrants to arrive in this
territory. They came to convert what they saw as a heathen people to the
teachings of Christ.

The isolation approach by government was represented by the reservation
system.

The British, in order to colonize, had to encourage more British subjects to
immigrate here. They did so by promising the newcomers free land once they
arrived; land that did not belong to them to begin with.

The government, however, still faced the problem of aboriginal people
continuing to have children. All experts of the day agreed that the best
possible solution was to assimilate aboriginal people into the lower
echelons of white society.

This assimilative approach began in 1857 when the Civilization Act was
passed. This legislation would make "savages" a part of society. If an
aboriginal person met a number of requirements, including the ability to
speak English or French and the attainment of any level of education, then
that aboriginal person could apply to the government to be "civilized."

Overtly racist

After a probationary period, the government could declare the person was no
long aboriginal. Therefore, all aboriginal rights would also be taken away,
including the right to live in your community. Readers must remember that
Canadian society was overtly racist in this era, so "civilized" aboriginal
people began lying about their identity in hopes of passing for white. This
legislation, then, also represented a divide-and-conquer strategy for
government. Those divisions still exist.

By 1920, the requirements of the Civilization Act were broadened and the
"civilization" process became mandatory for anyone who met those
requirements. This created a negative outcome to attaining an education or
becoming self-suf1/2cient.

Throughout the world, and at all points of history, oppression is carried
out in the same fashion. One of the key factors in conquering a people is
the destruction of that people's culture. Legislation outlawing cultural
practices will curb culture, but to destroy it completely takes total
assimilation.

Education, whether formal or informal, is how people pass their cultural DNA
down to the next generation. Therefore, when it came to cultural genocide in
Canada, the government realized very quickly that taking over the education
of aboriginal children would speed up the assimilation process. This is a
practice that has been done by conquerors all over the world.

The government, however, found that the in3/4uence of the family on a child
was greater than that of the day school. The government then came up with
the notion of industrialized residential schooling for all aboriginal
children.

Some of Canada's major churches were given the contracts to run these
residential schools and in 1920, attendance became compulsory for all
aboriginals between the ages of seven and 15.

The purpose of these schools was the cultural genocide of a people, thinly
veiled as an education.

In the early 1980s, residential-school students began talking about sexual
and other forms of abuse taking place at the schools. In 1996, the last
federally run residential school, the Gordon Residential School in
Saskatchewan, 1/2nally closed its doors.

The policy behind the schools was a crime against aboriginal people. Many
survivors of this system came back to their communities traumatized and
institutionalized.

Alcohol and drug abuse was the chosen form of self-medication for so many
who simply couldn't bear to speak openly about their experiences.

Unspoken atrocities

Here in Nova Scotia, many Mi'kmaq experienced this abuse at the residential
school in Shubenacadie, which operated from 1930 to 1967.

The atrocities that were done there were not spoken about openly for years.

Isabelle Knockwood attended the school from 1936 to 1947. A mother of six,
she started an anthropology degree at Saint Mary's University when she was
58.

She graduated in 1992, and in that same year, her experiences of that school
were shared with the public when her book, Out of the Depths was published.

Every Canadian who feels anger at the recent residential-school settlement
should take the time to read this book.

Isabelle shared her own experiences, but also talked to some of her former
classmates about their experiences. Stories of young girls being forced to
hold their panties out in front of them for inspection haunted me as I read
it.

If the nuns found any stains on the girls panties, they would be punished.
Page after page of memories of abuse and hard labour make it evident that
"academic education" was not the purpose of the school.

Boys and girls were forced to operate industrial-sized machines, resulting
in serious accidents.

So many stories told by the survivors centre around humiliation, beating and
sexual abuse.

The long-lasting cultural tragedy of these schools is internalized racism or
self-hatred.

This is a common theme we hear from survivors across the country: through
humiliation and abuse, aboriginal children were taught that their very
identity was a sin.

They were taught to be ashamed of their language, their culture and their
bodies.

Regaining their voice

When survivors began to talk openly about their experiences, the community
also started to understand the layer of generational grief that has existed
in the aboriginal community since the early 1930s.

The impact continued for children of survivors who have also been affected
by the experience of residential schools.

Years ago, the Assembly of First Nations began a residential-school
division, and many legal actions were launched all over the country.

Negotiations then began.

In May of 2006, the government of Canada announced that a settlement
agreement had been reached.

In the time since, the Canadian courts have approved the settlement
agreement. On Sept. 19 of this year, that agreement came into affect.

This agreement will distribute $1.9 billion to survivors, and it will also
set up a truth and reconciliation commission.

It will continue to support the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

For survivors all over the country, this will mean that for the 1/2rst time
that their experiences will be validated and acknowledged, hopefully
allowing them to move on to the healing process.

Systematic abuse

Residential schools were federally regulated segregation and federally
sanctioned racism.

Residential schools were a systematic, tax-funded, sexual and physical abuse
of one race of Canadian people.

All Canadians should take pride in this process of making amends, and be
glad that the healing can 1/2nally begin.

And no Canadian has ever put the need for healing into words better than
Rita Joe when she penned her humble poem, I Lost My Talk:

I lost my talk

The talk you took away

When I was a little girl

At Shubenacadie school

You snatched it away:I speak like you

I think like you

I create like you

The scrambled ballad, about my word.

Two ways I talk

Both ways I say,

Your way is more powerful.

So gently I offer my hand and ask,

Let me 1/2nd my talk

So I can teach you about me.

Candy Palmater wants to dedicate this column to the many residential-school
survivors who continue to teach us all how to love, laugh and forgive.