Between 1831 and 1996, residential schools operated in Canada through arrangements between the Government of Canada and the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, United and Presbyterian churches. This partnership ended in 1996, with the Government of Canada taking over the management of residential schools and beginning to transfer control to Indian bands. The last federally-run residential school, Gordon Indian Residential School in Punnichy, Saskatchewan, closed in 1996. One common objective defined this period — the assimilation of Aboriginal children.

“Wanduta” (Red Arrow), Dakota First Nation, Oak Lake area, Manitoba, ca. 1913
Photographe : HW Gould
Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, PA-030027

Cette photo suivante a été prise au Manitoba, vers 1913, dans la ville de Brandon, l'homme Wanduta est Dakota et de la région d'Oak Lake. Il a été photographié dans le studio de HW, Gould et porte une chemise en tissu et une coiffe en plumes d'aigle, symbole de sa position dans la société dakota. Autour de son cou se trouve ce qui semble être une médaille de traité, deux symboles du choc des cultures dont Wanduta a été témoin. Il a également été considéré comme un fauteur de troubles par les autorités locales et s'est retrouvé en prison et jugé pour une cérémonie publique au cours de laquelle il était allégué qu'une cérémonie de remise des prix avait eu lieu.
La cérémonie de remise des cadeaux faisait partie intégrante de nombreuses cultures des Premières Nations et était également interdite par le gouvernement fédéral.
Une famille de la Première nation Saulteaux, Manitoba, 16 octobre 1887
Photographe : JB Tyrrell
Commission géologique du Canada
Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, PA-050799
Lecture des trois photographies de gauche à droite :
Une famille de la Première nation Saulteaux, Manitoba, 16 octobre 1887. Photographe : JB Tyrrell
Commission géologique du Canada
Archives nationales du Canada, PA-050799

Cette famille Saulteaux a été photographiée dans une partie non identifiée du Manitoba le 16 octobre 1887, par JB Tyrrell, un photographe travaillant pour la Commission géologique du Canada. Des traités venaient d'être signés au début de la décennie et la transition d'une société tribale à une culture de réserve ne faisait que commencer.
The Saulteaux family represents what I suggest is a form acculturation. They have adopted western style clothing, yet they still live in the tradition tipi, the male figure is seen holding a rifle that may well have been used in the traditional buffalo hunt, but by this point in time the great herds have disappeared. The tipi would have been made from buffalo hide but here it appears to be made from canvas. The mother is seen holding a baby in the traditional cradle-board used by indigenous people across North America. They appear to be doing well, despite the government assertion that indigenous people were not taking care of or providing a “proper” lifestyle for their children. This child very well could have gone to a residential school.

Sœurs à l'extérieur de l'externat de Pukatawagan avec un groupe de garçons portant des coiffes de style indien des plaines en papier, v. années 1960
Attribué à Sœur Liliane
Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, PA-195120

Cela mène à la photographie suivante, qui a été prise dans la communauté de réserve de Pukatawagan, également au Manitoba. La date exacte de la photographie n'est pas connue mais elle date des années 1960 et montre dix petits garçons indiens posés devant l'école de jour. Les symboles de pouvoir vus sur la photographie révèlent l'effacement complet de la famille et remplacé par les sœurs.
The boys wearing paper headdresses and are now under the supervision of the sisters. Their headdresses are juxtaposed against the crucifix and the banal school façade. The photograph was taken by Sister Liliane of the Sisters of the Soeurs du Sacré-Coeur d’Ottawa. Her collection of photographic negatives eventually made their way to the Library and Archives Canada collection, saved from the dump by the new teacher who replaced the sisters.
D'autres photographies réalisées par sœur Liliane sont vues plus tard dans l'exposition et offrent une fenêtre unique sur le monde de l'assimilation vu à travers le prisme du christianisme. Le processus d'assimilation était une attaque à deux volets contre les cultures autochtones qui a commencé au XVe siècle et a été menée dans les pensionnats.

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What kind of Indians are Hayter Reed and the little boy, his stepson, Jack Lowery? Mixed messages and irony…the point is to raise vigilance as to how we look at archival photographs. Also to explore the significance of 1885 which was a turning point and when residential schools began to be used as a weapon. In the fallout of the 1885 Resistance there was a much harsher system of assimilation implemented of which Hayter Reed was a strong proponent. This was really the catalyst of the Residential School System. The negotiations that were going on the east, with the Reverend Peter Jones and the churches, was more of an education partnership, before 1885. There was a slow burn of assimilation which accelerated and became much harsher and purposed after 1885. These images are meant to inspire questions. Why are these three images displayed together? I hoped to provoke people to get them talking, to provoke the communities to add their voices to the exhibition.

Ironically, the portrait of Reed with his stepson Jack Lowery was made the same year Thomas Moore appeared in the 1896 Sessional Report. Reed acquired the tribal outfit while serving as an Indian agent in the west and Lowery’s outfit was made out of paper and facial paint was used to darken their skin. The dignitaries who took part in the costume ball picked various historical figures for their costumes and Hayter Reed chose the fifteen century Iroquoian leader Donnacona for his costume, but the clothing Reed is wearing is not what a fifteen century Iroquois would have worn. In fact he acquired the clothing while serving as an Indian agent in the west. Historically, when Donnacona and Jacques Cartier met near present day Quebec City, Cartier abducted Donnacona’s two sons had took them with him on his return trip to France, where they were educated. Could Reed have had this in mind when he chose Donnacona as an important historical figure?
Reed’s ran the Department of Indian Affairs, including the residential school system and one might think the young boy standing next to Reed is Aboriginal but he is not. Question: Why are they dressed in the type of clothing worn by First Nations people from the prairies, for the 1896 costume ball?

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Preuve de progrès

“Beaver Foot is a full-blooded Indian, and is the most advanced farmer on the reserve Alexander’s Band, Cree, Treaty 6, signed 1876). He is a young man, has a family of: himself, wife, one son and one daughter; his farm is a regularly improved homestead, after the fashion of a well-to-do, industrious white farmer; his buildings are all constructed of well-made square timber, and are as follows: dwelling-house, milk-house, pig-house, shed for implements, three stables, two cattle-sheds; three well-fenced corrals calf, sheep and pig pastures; 1,000 acres fenced as a cattle and horse pasture his hay meadows are also fenced to prevent cattle from grazing on them; his live-stock are: two oxen, three cows, five steers, twelve large, good work horses; his implements are: mower and rake, farm wagon, breaking-plough, cross-plough, iron harrows, whip-saw, grindstone, land roller, ox yoke, ox harness, two sets horse team harness, two bob-sleighs, crosscut saw, logging-chain, augers, axes, hay-forks, saws, hammers, spade, scoop and other shovels, hoes; his house is comfortably furnished with cooking-stove, tables, chairs, bedsteads, churn, milk-pans, & c. Beaver Foot came to settle down on the reserve in 1889, owning then only a team of ponies. The agent lent him a yoke of oxen and a cow, but no implements, so that his present possessions are the result of economics and careful industry. His fences are strong and straight, of tamarack stakes and spruce rails. When I was at his place he was engaged in bauling rails with one of his large, horse teams and strewing them along where he intended to build this new fence. His character is that he is reliable – ‘his word is his bond’; would that there were more like him. I had almost forgotten to mention his crops. They consist of ten acres of wheat, ten acres of oats, ten acres of barley, one acre of potatoes and one acre of garden-total, thirty-two acres.” Hayter Reed, Deputy Supt. General of Indian Affairs.

Government Indian agent reports often described how indigenous families were not capable of taking proper care of their children as used it as a justification for taking their children away to residential schools, this section asks: Do these families appear unstable or unloving? The fact of instability in reserve communities came from family providers having to make the transition from hunters to farmers in a relatively short period of time. It is almost incompressible to image the government’s expectation that a quick transition should take, but parents were doing the best for their children.

Indian agent reports included detailed inventories of farm equipment, livestock, the crops produced, and house conditions, inside and out. Each report is attributed to the male head of the family but women, who kept order in the houses, are never credited. This is a common issue in photographs as well, where the male is named while the woman is referred to as wife or squaw of….This was reflective of how white society viewed women, not how indigenous culture viewed women. In the Williams Lake Reserve photograph, the condition and atmosphere of the house is often determined by the woman’s industry.

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Ces institutions financées par le gouvernement fédéral et gérées par l'Église sont nées d'une politique gouvernementale d'assimilation. Les enfants ont été retirés de leur famille et envoyés dans ces écoles afin qu'ils perdent leur culture et leur langue afin de faciliter leur assimilation dans la société canadienne en général. Il peut s'agir d'écoles industrielles, d'internats, de foyers pour étudiants, de foyers, de logements, de pensionnats, de pensionnats comptant une majorité d'élèves de jour, ou une combinaison de tout ce qui précède. À la demande des Survivants, cette définition a évolué pour inclure les couvents, les écoles de jour, les écoles de mission, les sanatoriums et les camps d'établissement. Ils étaient fréquentés par des étudiants des Premières Nations, inuits et métis.

Une mère amène ses enfants au pensionnat St John, à Wapuskaw, en Alberta. Question : tous ces enfants vont-ils à l'école ? Bien que le très jeune enfant puisse sembler trop jeune, le gouvernement et les églises ont estimé que la première étape pour prendre le contrôle et affirmer une présence dans les communautés était d'adopter des enfants orphelins ou abandonnés. Il n'était pas rare de voir des enfants aussi jeunes que cinq et six ans être emmenés dans une école et y passer leur jeune vie.

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La carte est une première étape importante dans l'espace d'exposition, car elle montre graphiquement le nombre d'écoles à travers le Canada, les différents noms sous lesquels une école fonctionnait, les dates d'ouverture et de fermeture et les confessions religieuses qui dirigeaient chaque école. Les enfants peuvent avoir fréquenté plus d'une école, en commençant par une école dans une réserve ou en étant envoyés à des centaines de kilomètres dans une école industrielle. Un survivant m'a dit que dans son école ontarienne, un garçon s'enfuyait continuellement et que la seule façon de s'occuper de lui était de le transférer dans une école à l'autre bout du pays. La carte aura un sens pour différentes personnes, beaucoup de gens disent qu'ils n'avaient jamais imaginé qu'il y avait autant d'écoles au Canada et que le survivant et sa famille ont un point de départ pour entamer une conversation.

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Dominion of Canada. Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs for the year ended 31st December, 1885. p. 138. J. Hugonnard, Principal Qu’Appelle Industrial School.

“I feel certain that this school will be a great success, and that it will be a chief means of civilizing the Indian; but to obtain this result, accommodation must be made to take in more pupils, as now we can only take in but one out of each reserve. A school for Indian girls would be of great importance, and I may say, would be absolutely necessary to effect the civilization of the next generation of Indians[;] if the women were educated it would almost be a guarantee that their children would be educated also and brought up Christians, with no danger of their following the awful existence that many of them ignorantly live now. It will be nearly futile to educate the boys and leave the girls uneducated.”

À la suite du rapport Davin de 1879, le gouvernement a entrepris un effort concerté pour isoler les enfants de leurs communautés et de leurs familles par le biais du modèle d'école industrielle des États-Unis. Les écoles ont été construites loin des réserves et l'ingérence des parents, selon les responsables scolaires, entravait le processus d'assimilation.

In the book entitled, The Building of The Canadian Pacific Railway: Van Horne’s Road, by Omer Lavallee, this image is captioned as,“Children from a mission school near Morley contemplate the Bow River, watched over by a priest or teaching brother (left) who may also have been a Native person.”

Les points intéressants pour cette photographie sont l'alignement des éléments au sein de la photographie et de considérer quel était le but derrière la mise en scène de l'image. C'est un an avant que la rébellion du Nord-Ouest et les peuples autochtones de la Saskatchewan souffrent de la récente perte du bison et soient maintenant parqués sur des terres de réserve. Les gens sont affamés et totalement dépendants des rations alimentaires inférieures aux normes que les agents indiens distribuent. Les rations alimentaires sont utilisées pour briser les communautés tribales, c'est une toile de fond que l'on ne voit pas sur la photo.
The photographer, Otto B. Buell, also worked for the CPR and recorded the Northwest Rebellion battlefields and the indigenous prisoners held in Regina, where they were put on trial and eventually incarcerated and executed. The first element to examine in the photograph is that the boys are lined up and wearing the school uniform and looking off into an unknown and unseen part of the landscape. Sitting behind the boys is a priest, who has been identified as Indigenous. In the foreground are a young boy and a woman who is probably his mother. They are dressed in the typical clothing worn at the time and they are the only ones facing the photographer’s camera.
En descendant la colline, un sentier mène à la porte de l'école, où les enfants sont probablement déposés et les parents découragés d'aller plus loin. Le titre de cette exposition est inspiré de cette photographie. Je me demandais si la mère avait déjà vu l'intérieur de l'école. Déposait-elle son fils ? Et pourrions-nous revenir un an plus tard et le voir assis avec le groupe de garçons en uniforme ? Cette suggestion peut être liée au portrait en duel de Thomas Moore, une image qui résonne avec les nuages qui se profilent au-dessus de l'école.

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View of Fort Qu’Appelle Indian Industrial School, showing Aboriginal tipis outside the school fence, Lebret, Saskatchewan, 1895 Library and Archives Canada, PA-182246 This is a companion photograph to the image in Stop 7. It shows the gate and fence once again but now we see teepees and tents pitched outside the school gate, reinforcing the growing concern over Indian families showing up at the schools and wanting to take their children home. When officials write about this problem in their reports, they fail to account for why the parents wanted to take their children out of school, the number of children who are dying while at school. Not far away , Thomas Moore is being photographed at the Regina Indian Industrial School for the school’s annual report to Indian Affairs

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Domination du Canada. Rapport annuel du ministère des Affaires indiennes pour l'année terminée le 31 décembre 1897. p. xxvi. JAS. A. Smart, surintendant adjoint des Affaires indiennes.

“The chief advantage of such schools is the removal of the children from home influences, and consequently the more speedy and thorough inculcation of the habits, customs and modes of thought of the white man, but to have all that exists in common between them destroyed, and to have them return to the reserve out of sympathy with their environment, seems to the Indian parent a distinct disadvantage. It is, therefore, only as they can be brought to recognize the greater material advantage to their children in other directions and the necessity of education to enable them to hold their own in the struggle for existence, that their prejudices against education can be overcome and a desire for its benefits aroused.”

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par David Octavius Hill & Robert Adamson, 4 août 1845
Rév Peter Jones Kahkewaquonaby

L'éducation autochtone était depuis longtemps une priorité pour les dirigeants et les gouvernements autochtones et britanniques (et plus tard canadiens). Cependant, les changements politiques et économiques provoqués par les événements du dix-neuvième siècle en ont rapidement fait un moment critique. Conscients de l’impact à long terme de ces changements sur leur vie et leur culture traditionnelles, un certain nombre de dirigeants autochtones ont engagé des négociations avec les ordres religieux et les représentants du gouvernement pour créer un système d’éducation équitable pour tous.

Rév Peter Jones Kahkewaquonaby

L'éducation autochtone était depuis longtemps une priorité pour les dirigeants et les gouvernements autochtones et britanniques (et plus tard canadiens). Cependant, les changements politiques et économiques provoqués par les événements du dix-neuvième siècle en ont rapidement fait un moment critique. Conscients de l’impact à long terme de ces changements sur leur vie et leur culture traditionnelles, un certain nombre de dirigeants autochtones ont engagé des négociations avec les ordres religieux et les représentants du gouvernement pour créer un système d’éducation équitable pour tous.

I received the traditional education at home before going to the residential school. My parents taught me what was needed and what and how it was done in the traditional ways of life. We learned about medicines and when to pick them and what they were used for. In this way I was learning about science or the biology of plants and trees – that was the environmental studies about trees. By picking and cutting birch bark we learned how to only take the bark off the tree without harming the tree and how to dry and look after the bark when it was stored. I learned about the science of the weather. I learned about seasons and how these seasons helped human beings to survive according to the season.

Shirley Williams est ojibwe et a reçu une éducation traditionnelle ojibwe au début de sa vie avant

attending the St. Joseph’s Residential School at Spanish, Ontario. She is currently a

professeur au Département d'études autochtones, de langue et de culture, Pensionnats indiens, à

Université Trent. De plus, elle a publié du matériel didactique pour la langue ojibwe et est

travailler sur un CD-ROM en langue ojibwé.

The idea behind using this image is to first establish the historical role of the exhibition, to trace back in time, the agenda the government and churches had for Indigenous children in the 19th century and imagine replacing this class of non-indigenous girls with Indigenous girls and how incongruous it would look. This photograph reminded me of the cut-outs figures seen at tourist attractions where you stand behind a picture and put your face in the hole. I took this photograph at a tourist site in Deep River, Ontario. A phrase often echoed by the people in charge of assimilating indigenous children is ‘Kill the Indian to save the child’ now re-imagine the symbolism in this cutout in relation to the duel portrait of Thomas Moore.

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Now that the children have been dropped off at the school, family and community vanish and a very different world begins to take over the children’s lives. The way survivors have described their arrival sounds like a prisoner’s story.
Lisez ce que la survivante Shirley Williams a à dire.

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Shirley I. Williams, Ojibway, attended St. Joseph’s Residential School in Spanish, Ontario, at the age of 10. She is now Professor Emerita and Ojibway Elder in the Department of Native Studies at Trent University, Peterborough.

When ten-year-old Shirley Pheasant (Williams) entered the St. Joseph’s Boarding School at Spanish, Ontario, in 1949, she could only speak her Native language, Ojibway. Shirley remembers what it was like when she first arrived:

“When I saw [St. Joseph’s] it was grey. A brick building when it rains is dark and grey, you know. It’s an ugly day but the feeling was … of ugliness. [T]he gate opened and the bus went in, and I think when the gate closed … something happened to me, something locked, it is like my heart locked, because it could hear that…[the clink of gates]

…the bus stopped and then the sister or the nun … she came in and she sounded very very cross, and I could just imagine what she was trying to say, because this is what my sisters told me, what she would probably say, so I had in my mind what she was trying to tell us, that we get off the bus [and] we go two by two … up the stairs … the stairs were, well it was four stories and no elevator and we had to walk up the stairs with our suitcases.

…[at the] top of the stairs . . . you were asked your name … and this [is] another thing my mother prepared me for … so I was very proud to say yes that my name was Shirley Pheasant and then they gave you a number and so you went down and they give you another bundle with your chemise … your bloomers and your stocking[s] and you went to the next person … the last one you saw [was] the nun who looked into your hair to look for bugs.”

Ethnocide refers to the deliberate attempt to eradicate the culture or way of life of a people. . . . Ethnocide depends on the use of political power to force relatively powerless people to give up their culture and is therefore characteristic of colonial or other situations where coercion can be applied. . . . The term is sometimes used to refer to any process or policy that results in the disappearance of a people’s culture.

Le Dictionnaire d'anthropologie (1997). Edité par Thomas Barfield. Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

Définition du génocide

Article II de la Convention des Nations Unies de 1948 pour la prévention et la répression du crime de

Le génocide déclare :

L'un des actes suivants commis dans l'intention de détruire, en tout ou en partie, un

groupe racial ou religieux, en tant que tel : meurtre de membres du groupe ; causant des lésions corporelles ou mentales graves à

des membres du groupe; infligeant délibérément au groupe des conditions de vie, calculées pour amener

sa destruction physique en tout ou en partie ; imposer des mesures destinées à empêcher les naissances au sein du groupe ; [et] transférer de force les enfants du groupe à un autre groupe.

X

Staff outside the entrance of the Brandon Indian Industrial School, Brandon, Manitoba, date unknown Library and Archives Canada, PA-048575 Looking at this photograph several elements stand out. We see a very young girl seated among the school’s teachers and administrators; she is almost invisible at first glance. She appears too young to be a student, was she adopted by one of the teachers? Off to the left side is a young boy who is literally cut in two by the frame of the photograph, what he is thinking about? One half of him is physically there and the other half may be back on the reserve. This photograph builds upon the 1884 photograph, Stop 7 which shows the photograph of Principal Father Joseph Hugonnard and students posed on the hill overlooking the Fort Qu’Appelle Indian Industrial School. We have now made our way down the hill and are facing the gateway to a new civilization, is it a better world? What is not taken into consideration is that Indigenous children arrived at the schools with an education that provided all the necessities for a good life. Children like Shirley Williams and Thomas Moore did not enter these schools uneducated. For thousands of years, Aboriginal people had flourished on this continent, but the arrival of Europeans slowly began to erode the integrity and strength of Indigenous l cultures. The program of social engineering implemented by the Canadian government and carried out by the churches can be, I argue, characterized as ethnocide.

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Élèves autochtones sur les marches d'une école indienne près de Woodstock, Nouveau-Brunswick, date inconnue
Photographe : William James Topley
Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, PA-010634

Le père Trinell avec des enfants inuits devant la mission catholique romaine, Cape Dorset, Territoires du Nord-Ouest*, octobre 1951
Photographe : Douglas Wilkinson,
Office national du film du Canada
Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, PA-146509
*Kinngait, Nunavut

Location and Area of Land. – This school is situated about four miles west of Regina. The total area of land is three hundred and twenty acres, all of which is enclosed by a substantial wire fence. Other fences separate the farm lands from the grounds immediately surrounding the school buildings. The waters of the Wascana run through the eastern portion of our half section, and by the construction of a dam we have given some additional beauty to the grounds.

Buildings. – The buildings are erected on high lands, and, everything considered, the school is admirably situated. The main building, constructed of brick, is one hundred and eighty feet in length. From garret to basement its rooms are utilized. In the rear of this building are the laundry, the bake-house and a small ice-house; also a small crusher-house near the wind-mill. The large building for instruction in trades gives accommodation for carpentry, painting, shoemaking and harness-making. In addition to these buildings, there are two large stables, an implement shed, a principal\\\’s residence and a cottage under construction for the carpenter.

Grounds. – The grounds are beautified by trees and numerous flower-beds. On the flats beyond the river the boys have a very suitable field for their athletic exercises.

Accommodation. – The accommodation of the school is limited to one hundred and fifty pupils.

Attendance. – The attendance of boys for the year averaged seventy-five, of the girls forty-seven, making a total of one hundred and twenty-two.

The Outing System. – The adoption of the outing system has been attended by many beneficial results. It accustoms the pupils to the white man\\\’s ways. It is our aim to select only helpful homes where our pupils will have a number of home comforts. We especially desire to secure remunerative occupation for the boys, who should be the wage-earners of their future homes. Applications for their services have been so numerous that the majority of the applicants had to be disappointed, and yet our last monthly statement shows that nineteen of our boys were earning wages not in any case less than $15 a month and board.

J'ai, & c., AJ MCLEOD,

Principal.

The school buildings ranged from primitive structures to large institutional industrial schools. This architectural drawing from the Department of Indian Affairs corresponds to the photograph of the girls’ sewing room in the Shubenacadie residential school that appears after this stop. The architectural drawing is like the residential school map, because it provides the survivor and visitor a way to track the interior of the school and point out places of importance for discussion, I chose this particular drawing because it corresponds to the photograph of the sewing room and in turn it provides the photograph with physical context.

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Une classe de menuiserie à l'école industrielle indienne de Brandon, Brandon, Manitoba, v. 1910
Église Unie du Canada, Archives, 93.049P/1368N

Géo. H. Hogbin, directeur, vol. XXXIV, non. 11, 1900, Formation morale et religieuse, p. 352 :

"Daily service is held morning and evening, at which all inmates of the institution are expected to be present. The usual Sunday services, such as in any country church, are held. […] Our aim is to make them good Christian men, men of action, men of thought; we try to teach them habits of self-dependence, not to be always waiting to be told what to do, but to think for themselves, and we attempt to show them the beauty of a good life, well and usefully lived.”

EN CLASSE
I chose this photograph because of the powerful presence of the young girl seated in the center of the first row. She appears calm and almost serene in the midst of the classroom. She is in focus while the children around her become less sharp as we go farther back into the room. In the back of the room is a sister who is standing next to a religious icon and note, in almost every photograph in this exhibition, person of authority is in the image. Is the sense of self seen in her face a result of the school or is it the result of the education she received from her own culture? Are there other examples in the exhibition? Another point to consider is the young girl’s haircut, is it seen in other parts of the exhibition?

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Il est également intéressant de discuter du programme d'éducation qui était censé durer une demi-journée, mais pour de nombreux étudiants, ce n'était que de quelques heures tout au plus. Beaucoup passaient la majeure partie de leur temps à travailler à la ferme, car le gouvernement était si avare en termes de budget que les écoles devaient compter sur leurs propres cultures pour fournir de la nourriture aux élèves. Le fait était donc que la plupart du temps, ces enfants travaillaient plutôt que de recevoir une éducation en classe.

Il y avait aussi une autre partie de l'expérience scolaire appelée sortie. Et c'est là que les enfants ont été envoyés travailler pour les agriculteurs locaux, comme femmes de ménage et travaillant dans les écuries et dans les champs. Ainsi, ce programme de sorties a apporté des revenus à l'école et les étudiants ont plus ou moins gagné leur subsistance. Souvent, les étudiants devaient confectionner leurs propres vêtements dans la salle de couture, alors oui, ils apprenaient à coudre, mais ils devaient confectionner leurs propres vêtements.

Jeff Thomas, conservateur

Pensionnat indien de Kamloops (pensionnat indien de la mission St. Louis) Ouvert en 1890 et fermé en 1978. Il était dirigé par l'Église catholique romaine, avec le soutien du gouvernement fédéral canadien. Les Oblats de Marie Immaculée et les Sœurs de Sainte-Anne étaient les ordres spécifiques impliqués dans la gestion de l'école. L'école mettait l'accent sur la formation agricole et consacrait une demi-journée aux études universitaires et religieuses et une demi-journée au travail manuel. En 1923, l'école est détruite par un incendie et un nouveau bâtiment en brique est construit à sa place. Il tient encore aujourd'hui.

Élèves et membres du personnel autochtones rassemblés devant le pensionnat indien de Kamloops, Kamloops, Colombie-Britannique, 1934
Archives Deschâtelets
When we think of a class pictures, what comes to mind? It is generally a positive experience and marks the end of a school year. What does this class picture say to you? Do you think the kids brought a photograph home to give to their parents? Consider the large number of children at this school and how young many of them appear to be. Note the strong Christian overtone and the men seated in the front row. How does this factor influence the reading of the image? Especially in consideration that these children came to the school with their own tribal-based belief system? The Potlatch or give-away was an important ceremony that would have been part of the children’ s world back home and it was also outlawed by Indian Affairs. How could the children possibly understand or resolve the ideological differences at play in the school?

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Deux des premiers élèves à fréquenter la Blackfoot Anglican School, Alberta, ca. 1886
Photographe : AJ Ross
Archives de Glenbow, NA-896-3

Sœurs à l'extérieur de l'externat de Pukatawagan avec un groupe de garçons portant des coiffes de style indien des plaines en papier, v. années 1960
Attribué à Sœur Liliane
Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, PA-195120

Un garçon autochtone se faisant couper les cheveux, 1960
Photographe : Sœur Liliane
Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, PA-195124

Que se passait-il sur cette photo ? Est-ce que le garçon se fait couper les cheveux en guise de punition ou est-ce une formation de coiffeur ? Lors d'une tournée que j'ai donnée à un groupe d'autochtones, j'ai posé cette question. Un survivant était dans le groupe et elle a dit qu'il était puni. Regardez l'expression de son visage et comment les autres enfants détournent le regard.? Il est difficile de dire ce qui se passe réellement sur la photo, mais peu importe, cela a remué la mémoire de la femme. et a donné plus de réflexion au groupe de touristes.
Les administrateurs des pensionnats et les agents des Indiens de tout le Canada ont soumis des rapports annuels au ministère des Affaires indiennes. Ces rapports ont été reliés avec les rapports annuels d'autres ministères fédéraux, faisant partie d'un document plus vaste appelé Les Documents de la session. Informations sur les emplacements et les conditions des écoles, les noms des enseignants et des administrateurs, les classes enseignées, le nombre d'élèves fréquentant les écoles, les régions d'où ils viennent, et l'idéologie professée par les écoles et par le Département de Les Affaires indiennes étaient toutes incluses dans les rapports. Des photographies ont été utilisées pour illustrer les rapports annuels entre 1895 et 1905. Le rapport de 1896 était particulièrement révélateur car c'est là que j'ai rencontré Thomas Moore.

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Over the years I have met Survivors during my tours of the exhibition and one comment I kept hearing over and over again was about the loneliness and especially difficult was hearing the younger children crying throughout the night. Comments like this are vital because of the information they provide the images with; imagine children trying to say the prayers, maybe not able to speak English yet and fearing punishment if they don’t say them, . When I had an opportunity to interview Shirley Williams, who is seen in the role Model section, I had this photo in mind when I asked her how she kept her Ojibwe language alive while in school. Her story raised more questions and one was about how children resisted assimilation and what were their strategies.

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Le but de cette exposition est l'autonomisation; donner au public autochtone la possibilité de commencer à voir les lieux où les enfants autochtones ont été emmenés et d'imaginer leurs histoires. En un sens, les images offrent l'opportunité de boucler la boucle et d'aller de l'avant.

By rethinking their role and purpose, perhaps these photographs can contribute to the healing process for those who attended residential schools as well as their children and grandchildren. I want to suggest that these photographs can play a new role – one that speaks to the loss of imagination that occurred in those classrooms. How can we begin to imagine a different story – one where Jim Abikoki stands up and opens the gate, one where the white teacher is replaced by an Elder who tells the children the history of their people, one where Waduta is not forced to give up one culture for the other, one where Mollie receives proper care and returns to her community.

I want to end by returning to Thomas Moore. In 2011, new information about Moore was forwarded to me from the Saskatchewan Archives. I now know what reserve he came from, what his parents’ names were, and when he entered the Regina Industrial school.

Thomas Moore Kusick was admitted to the Regina Industrial School on August 26, 1891. His mother’s name was Hanna Moore Kusick and his father Paul Desjarlais (listed in the Regina Industrial School register as st. Paul Desjarlais. The name Kusick, according to the archivist may be of Aboriginal or of Ukrainian origin. It is hard to tell given lack of uniformity in the spelling of the era. The father died early.
According to the Regina Industrial School register, Thomas Moore was protestant and had previously attended Lakes End School (Muscowpetung [later known as “Lakesend”] Residential School, Saskatchewan. A boarding school opened c.1888. In 1890 the school was moved to a point nine miles north of the old site. This school closed in June 1894 but was re-opened briefly in 1895 before being closed again in 1896. From
His state of education upon admission consisted of knowing the alphabet. He was eight years old, was 3 ‘11” and weighed 54.5 lbs. A note in the register says to see page 20 of the discharge register. He was from the Saulteaux Tribe. He was from the Muscowpetung Band.

With this new information, I went back to the 1896 annual report. I saw something I had never noticed before – a portrait of the brass band from the Regina Industrial School,and in the front row, seated on the ground third from the left, was a young boy that looked like Thomas Moore. His face resemble his face in the first photograph where is is wearing traditional clothing and here is appears as t a young boy in the group, not a poster child for residential schools.

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Despite the fact that most residential schools have been closed for several decades now, their damaging effects continue to reverberate throughout Aboriginal communities across Canada, both on reserves and in urban centres, with the images of what took place seared in the minds of former students. The need for healing is crucial — it is not enough to say that we have survived. The question is: “How well are we surviving?” To answer that question we have to look at the intergenerational impacts of residential schools — youth suicides, incarceration rates, family violence and sexual abuse, drug use and alcoholism, poverty, and homelessness.

The photographs in this exhibition show where the children were sent, but that is only a part of the picture. We need the stories of our Elders and family members to move another step along the journey to the healing. That is what this exhibition is hoping to encourage. Healing not only entails an individual journey, but a collective process of addressing the systemic social problems Aboriginal communities across Canada continue to face. The first step in the healing process can be as simple as looking through a grandmother’s family photo album.

J'ai droit à la liberté d'expression.

J'ai le droit d'être entendu.

J'ai le droit d'être respecté.

J'ai le droit d'accepter et de posséder mon propre pouvoir.

J'ai le droit de ne pas divulguer à moins que je ne sois à l'aise.

J'ai le droit de ressentir mes émotions.

J'ai le droit de dire non.

J'ai le droit de contester le statu quo.

J'ai le droit de poser des questions.

J'ai le droit d'être moi.

J'ai le droit de posséder mes propres idées.

J'ai droit à mes valeurs et croyances.

J'ai le droit de rire.

Dre Alicia A. Dunlop, Toronto

Before long, Aboriginal communities began to experience the full effect of the dysfunction, and indeed devastation, caused by the residential school system. Generations of Survivors have been raised, from as young as four or five years old, in a “family” made up of government and church officials, and school staff. Far short of parental role models, teachers and school administrators used harsh disciplinary methods, and neither encouraged nor showed affection. The residential school system deprived Aboriginal children of their traditions and of a safe and supportive home in which they were cherished. It produced generations of people who lacked essential interpersonal and relationship skills. Many Survivors were not equipped with the skills to become loving partners and parents, and had difficulty expressing parental love; many did not know how to handle conflict in a constructive way. When these Survivors became spouses or parents, they did not always interact with others appropriately. The abuse and neglect that Survivors suffered at the schools often resurfaced in their own relationships, where the abused became the abuser. This perpetuated a cycle of violence within families, and produced generations of “broken children,” many of whom also went on to attend residential schools.

Alors que les parents luttaient contre le traumatisme de leurs propres expériences dans les pensionnats, ils sont restés impuissants à empêcher que la même chose ne soit visitée sur leurs propres enfants lorsqu'il était temps de fréquenter le pensionnat.

Le traumatisme non résolu des Autochtones qui ont subi ou été témoins de violence physique ou sexuelle dans le système des pensionnats indiens est transmis de génération en génération. Le cycle continu de violence intergénérationnelle dans les collectivités autochtones est l'héritage de la violence physique et sexuelle dans les pensionnats.

Voici la définition des impacts intergénérationnels et de l'héritage de la violence dans les pensionnats :

“Intergenerational Impacts” refer to “the effects of physical and sexual abuse that were passed on to the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Aboriginal people who attended the residential school system.”

Veuillez consulter la liste ci-dessous des impacts auxquels les Survivants intergénérationnels sont confrontés au quotidien :

Abus d'alcool et de drogues;
Syndrome d'alcoolisation fœtale (SAF) et effet de l'alcoolisation fœtale (EAF);
Abus sexuels (passés et actuels);
Maltraitance physique (passée et actuelle ; en particulier, mais pas exclusivement, des femmes et des enfants) ;
Abus psychologique/émotionnel ;
Faible estime de soi;
Familles dysfonctionnelles et relations interpersonnelles;
Problèmes parentaux tels que la froideur émotionnelle, la rigidité, la négligence, les mauvaises communications et l'abandon ;
Suicide (et menace de suicide);
Grossesse chez les adolescentes ;
Dépression chronique et généralisée ;
Rage et colère chroniques et généralisées ;
Troubles de l'alimentation;
Troubles du sommeil;
Maladie physique chronique liée à des états spirituels et émotionnels ;
Couche après couche de deuil et de perte non résolus;
Peur de la croissance personnelle, de la transformation et de la guérison ;
Intériorisation inconsciente des comportements des pensionnats tels que la fausse politesse, le fait de ne pas parler, l'obéissance passive, la propreté excessive, l'obéissance sans réflexion, etc.;
Environnement communautaire post-internat, vu dans les modèles d'autorité paternaliste liés à la dépendance passive; des schémas d'abus de pouvoir pour contrôler les autres et des schémas sociaux communautaires qui favorisent le chuchotement dans l'obscurité, mais refusant de soutenir et de soutenir ceux qui s'expriment ou contestent le statu quo ;
La rupture du ciment social qui unit les familles et les communautés, comme la confiance, un terrain d'entente, un objectif et une direction partagés, une vie cérémonielle et civique dynamique, des réseaux coopératifs et des associations œuvrant pour le bien commun, etc.
Désunion et conflit entre les individus, les familles et les factions au sein de la communauté ;
Flashbacks et traumatismes associatifs ; c'est-à-dire que certaines odeurs, aliments, sons, images et personnes déclenchent des flashbacks, des crises d'anxiété, des symptômes physiques ou de la peur ; par exemple, la vue d'un certain type de bateau ou de véhicule (contenant en particulier un travailleur social ou la GRC), la vue d'un ancien bâtiment de pensionnat, etc.
Educational blocks – aversions to formal learning programs that seem “too much like school,” fear of failure, self-sabotage, psychologically-based learning disabilities;
Spiritual confusion; involving alienation from one’s own spiritual life and growth process, as well as conflicts and confusion over religion;
Sentiment intériorisé d'infériorité ou d'aversion vis-à-vis des Blancs et en particulier des Blancs au pouvoir ;
Toxic communication – backbiting, gossip, criticism, put downs, personal attacks, sarcasm, secrets, etc.;
Devenir oppresseurs et abuseurs des autres à la suite de ce qui a été fait à quelqu'un dans les pensionnats;
Comportements codépendants familiaux dysfonctionnels répliqués sur le lieu de travail ;
Cultural identity issues – missionization and the loss of language and cultural foundations has led to denial (by some) of the validity of one’s own cultural identity (assimilation), a resulting cultural confusion and dislocation;
Destruction des réseaux de soutien social (le filet de sécurité culturel) sur lesquels les personnes et les familles en difficulté pourraient compter ;
La déconnexion du monde naturel (c'est-à-dire la mer, la forêt, la terre, les êtres vivants) en tant qu'import

“[I remember] kids never having enough to eat. I think back on those days and I wonder was it during the Depression. Was that why there was so little food? Was it because food was rationed at that time? I guess in my own mind I’m trying to justify or make excuses why we didn’t have enough food. There was plenty of food on the table of the people who looked after us. There was butter on that table. We had fat on our bread. That’s what they put on our bread, one slice of bread per meal. The spread that was on there was beef fat or pork fat. When you do your duty and go to clean up the table of the caregivers and you see a beautiful setting there and they have a good choice of food —

. . . Mostly [at home] we lived on game, deer meat, and a lot of seafood prepared traditionally. That was all I knew, my grandmother\’s cooking. We had fried bread or oven bread, jam or dried fruits, dried meat, dried fish and clams. Those were all the foods I was familiar with. And to get [to school] and to have a dish of some sort of stew put in front of me that I was not familiar with at all — It must have been pork stew. I remember the rind being in the stew with the hair on it, with fur on it, and the child next to me was saying that you have to eat that food or else you’re going to be punished if you don’t. I think I blanked it out. I don’t know if I ate it.”

Elsie Paul
Pensionnat Sechelt

X

Se souvenir des enfants qui ne sont jamais rentrés à la maison

Controversy over the running of residential schools emerged in the early 20th century after great numbers of Aboriginal children died while attending the schools. “Throughout the industrial school era, children in the schools had been dying in unbelievable numbers. In that conjunction of the condition of the schools and the health of the children lay, as Dr. P.H. Bryce termed it in 1922, the ‘national crime.’ The main consequence of inadequate government funding, poorly constructed schools, sanitary and ventilation problems, inadequate diet, clothing and medical care was an epidemic of tuberculosis for Indian Schools.” (A National Crime: The Canadian Government and the Residential School System, 1879 to 1986, p. 75.)

The true numbers of children who died while at the schools, who didn’t come home and whose stories lay with them in unmarked graves, are beginning to be told by those who did survive. Why did so many children die? There was a perception that children were well taken care of while at school but this wasn’t true. The schools were underfunded, the children were underfed and overworked, and the schools were in very poor condition. So the perception that parents couldn’t take care of their children was not true and in fact, the children faced unhealthy environments while in the schools.

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Hayter Reed, surintendant général adjoint des Affaires indiennes, et son beau-fils, Jack Lowery, vêtus de costumes indiens pour un bal historique sur la Colline du Parlement, Ottawa, février 1896 Photographe : William James Topley Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, PA-139841

Les images suivantes sont des agrandissements de photographies présentées plus tôt dans l'exposition. Dans leur format plus petit, vous n'avez peut-être pas remarqué certains détails. La possibilité de visualiser des images originales sous une inspection minutieuse conduit souvent à de nouvelles découvertes d'informations documentaires. Par exemple, les identités des personnes, des lieux et des périodes deviennent claires. D'autres détails, tels que le symbolisme derrière les rouets ou le représentant du gouvernement vêtu de vêtements autochtones, peuvent inciter à davantage de discussions. En regardant ces photographies, réfléchissez aux histoires que vous écririez ou raconteriez à leur sujet.