The document Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust is a report published by The Truth Commission into Genocide in Canada. The report contains an untold story on the cultural genocide that the Canadian government and the Church imposed on aboriginal people in the country. It was published in 2001 after carrying out investigations into the native residential schools and crimes against the First Nation. The summary of evidence showed that the government had the intent to destroy the cultures, resulted in the death of some members as well as causing severe harm. 1
In the report, the Canadian government is accused of committing cultural genocide targeting the aboriginal people. Cultural genocide can be defined as the destruction of structures and practices that sustains a cultural group, which entails outlawing the group’s cultural traditions, banning languages as well as disrupting families to restrict the passing of cultural values to successive generations. The government established the Indian Residential Schools (IRS) as a primary vehicle in achieving the assimilation and civilization of the indigenous population. A vast network of 132 residential schools was established across Canada for this mission run and managed by the churches in the country. They contained more than 150,000 children from the aboriginal community who were forced to attend Christian schools seeking to get rid of their native culture and assimilate them into the Canadian society. 2
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The Canadian government designed the Indian Residential School system purposely to destroy indigenous cultures. The scheme targeted children from the aboriginal communities who were non-Christian and practiced what can be deemed ethnic cleansing. Since they spoke a different language and had different religious beliefs, the policy sought to eliminate this culture and language and make them part of the mainstream society. They would force the children to abandon their customs and traditions that include their language, religion, and lifestyle. 3 For example, the children were forbidden to speak their native language and forced to speak a new language.
The IRS system was responsible for causing physical and mental harm, forcibly transferring children from one cultural group to another as well as inflicting life conditions on the group to destroy it, all of which constitute genocide under the United Nations convention. 4 The aim of the schools was genocidal as it planned the destruction of a religious and ethnic group and converted them to Christianity. The report showed how country used arbitrary force in taking children from their families and putting them into the residential schools in remote locations so that they cannot escape. Here, they were subjected to forced labor and education with the intention of destroying their culture and civilization. This was an aspect of aggressive assimilation that was characterized by forcefully changing the perceptions and values of a person. 5 For example, the schools sought to turn the children from their Indian religion to Christianity as a way of assimilating them into the mainstream society other than allowing them to uphold their traditions.
In the report, the residential schools treated indigenous children as less human than other children and therefore subjected them to work like animals in the slave labor that the schools mandated. As a result, these children were malnourished and got sick due to the neglect and mistreatment, but still could not obtain adequate medical treatment. Other children were subjected to scientific experiments that entailed depriving them of essential nutrients. In the report, the system allowed children to die without providing the necessary medical interventions because of being indigenous and did not change the conditions inside the institutions. As a result, many children from indigenous communities died without keeping any records or informing their parents. Reports estimated that there were more than 6,000 deaths of children who attended the residential schools as a consequence of the cultural genocide. 6 Those who died were buried in unmarked graves without identifying them or notifying the parents
The IRS system was designed purposely to destroy the culture within the indigenous population. This genocide assault was both physical and mental seeking to turn the aboriginals into the white culture. For example, the children were made to stand upright for more than 12 hours at a time or immersing them in ice water. In other instances, they were forced to sleep outside in the cold among other physical assaults. There were also incidences of sexual violence within the IRS system that involved stripping the children naked in front of the assembled school and verbally as well as sexually assaulting them. 7
The impulse to displace and assimilate aboriginal populations using the IRS system rested on the assumption that indigenous life and their culture was not worth living and a belief that the British society and culture was superior. The aboriginal people were considered an impediment to further colonization, and the whites thought molding children was the perfect way to make them embrace the mainstream culture and fulfill the civilization mission. 8 As a result, the system marked a deliberate attempt to destroy many aspects of indigenous cultures and facilitate their colonization. The country saw the First nations as presenting an identity crisis and wanted to assimilate them into their culture and display them as part of the British heritage. However, these attempts to wipe out the indigenous community were not successful, but it left deep wounds in the country. There is still an aboriginal community in existence though they are severely damaged in the sense that they have refused to get assimilated into the mainstream society. As a result, there is a need for reconciliation with the families of those who lost their children as a way of helping them to get whole again. The agreement is needed to create a united society and change the attitudes that natives have towards the majority population in the country. 9 Additionally, the reconciliation is required to heal the damaged wounds and create one Canadian society.
The reconciliation can entail engaging in public dialogue and action to achieve agreement beyond the residential schools. It can also involve developing cultural social and political change that benefits the aboriginal population in the country and create the needed healing. For example, the native beliefs and cultures should be included in the religious curriculum of the schools. Some barriers to the reconciliation include child welfare, justice, and aboriginal education and are causing the relationship between Canada and the communities to deteriorate. However, all individual should not be ignorant of the history of the First Nation and avoid any form of racial attitude towards them.
Therefore, Canada is guilty of committing cultural genocide against indigenous people by using the Indian Residential Schools as a vehicle. This policy had the intent of assimilating the aboriginal people into the broader Canadian society. 10 At the end of the project, the government expected to have extinguished the native people in the country together with their governments and cultures. These facts of Canadian genocide of indigenous people have become part of the country's history. It shows the extent to which unqualified genocide has been perpetrated in Canada. The nation committed horrific treatment on aboriginal children in the residential schools that included systemic abuse and intergenerational trauma that led to the death of a large number of children. These residential schools constituted the death camps of the Canadian Holocaust and one of the darkest chapters in the collective history of the country.
Bibliography
Annett, Kevin Daniel. Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust: the Untold Story of the Genocide of Aboriginal Peoples by Church and State in Canada: a Summary of an Ongoing, Independent Inquiry Into Canadian Native" Residential Schools" and Their Legacy . Truth Commission into Genocide in Canada, 2001.
Barber, John. "Canada's Indigenous Schools Policy Was 'cultural Genocide', Says Report." The Guardian. Last modified June 2, 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/02/canada-indigenous-schools-cultural-genocide-report .
Thorner, Thomas, and Thor Frohn-Nielsen, eds. A country nourished on self-doubt: Documents in post-confederation Canadian history . University of Toronto Press, 2010.
1 Kevin Daniel Annet. Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust: the Untold Story of the Genocide of Aboriginal Peoples by Church and State in Canada: a Summary of an Ongoing, Independent Inquiry Into Canadian Native" Residential Schools" and Their Legacy (Truth Commission into Genocide in Canada, 2001).
2 John Barber. Canada's Indigenous Schools Policy Was 'cultural Genocide' (The Guardian, 2015).
3 Thomas Thorner and Frohn-Nielsen Thor. A country nourished on self-doubt: Documents in post-confederation Canadian history (University of Toronto Press, 2010).
4 Kevin Daniel Annet, 2001
5 John Barber, 2015
6 Kevin Daniel Annet, 2001
7 John Barber, 2015
8 Thomas Thorner and Frohn-Nielsen Thor, 2010
9 John Barber, 2015
10 Kevin Daniel Annet, 2001
