This morning I heard a radio interview that connected a few dots for me.
With the finding of about 215 bodies of children at a residential school there have been many questions. Many times parents did not find out what happened to their children. Parents were somewhat nomadic and wandered to where the hunting and trapping was best. If we go back further many parents didn't have much of an idea where their children went. There was not a legal apprehension just an apprehension. There wasn't much in the way of legal responsibility. There was no such thing as "ward".
Many parents did find out about their children's death. A few parents requested that their children's bodies be sent back home. The government refused to pay to send the body back to parents. This is extremely sad.
Now I had an experience with a death when I was in Wakeham Bay. A toddler was murdered by the mother. In the matter of investigation the child's body was taken south to Montreal.
A year later one of the elders asked me about the baby and where the body was. I didn't have an answer. I didn't know what happened to the body. I can't remember what I told him but it would have been of little value. I was in my mid 20's and the Quebec administrator was also in his mid 20's We were not at an age where we were mature enough to think about the significance of bodies. We were not trained to look after a murder.
I have thought of this incident many times and asked myself why I didn't take some action. I could have written a letter. The powers that be played fast and loose with some of these issues.
The interview this morning explained just how bad things were when the government refused to send a body back home.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteIt is so hard for a parent to have a child die, knowing the truth gives closure. I am surprised the government will not return the body/bodies. The discovery sounds like a horror story.
My parents lost their only daughter when she was 11 . They were devastated.
DeleteThe inhumanity is mind-boggling.
ReplyDeleteSad but true.
DeleteIt's hard when you're a young person in an unfamiliar place and you're confronted with situations you never expect. (I experienced similar things in the Peace Corps, though fortunately never a murder.)
ReplyDeleteThey don't seem to be able to give people a meaningful inservice.
DeleteA curious case that makes me wonder about the circumstances, and what happened to the mother, but you're certainly not guilty of anything.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to post a like for this topic.
DeleteIt's a sad situation, I feel so bad for the parents.
ReplyDeleteMany trusted the authorities and were let down.
DeleteAnd now the Church is refusing to release its records on the BC residential home. Shame on them, and shame on the Canadian government which destroyed documents related to the schools. That can be read here for anyone who is interested:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/missing-residential-school-records-vatican-won-t-release-documents-feds-destroyed-files-1.5455783
Work has started at the residential school in my home province of NS to determine if there are unmarked burials there as well. I hope families can get some answers.
It can be hard when we are young adults to understand how folks feel who are further along life's journey than we are. I expect you had a lot more compassion than many your age at the time.
With the new technology, I think they will find more grave sites.
DeleteIt is very sad.
ReplyDeleteThe people did not have an opportunity to grieve.
DeleteThere aren’t words to express the sadness of the history of these schools.
ReplyDeleteThe schools were bad enough but the deaths were just not explainable.
DeleteI am curious ... What were the grounds for taking the children away from their parents? Were the parents unable to support them? It just seems unbelieveable that government could separate families like this. Of course, the Trump administration did that right here in the USA with migrant families. Tragic and inhumane.
ReplyDeleteMany of these schools were started in the 1800's . It was a way for the government to educate aboriginal kids. Of course . the churches were only too happy to get control of the kids. The governments official policy was to make these kids into little white men . They wanted to take away the language and culture. Why? they could see that the treaties could very easily run into problems in court as the treaties were very poorly written.
DeleteI hope things have changed for these people. That they know now of their rights and exercise them.
ReplyDeleteSome things have improved but thee are still many problems.
DeleteInjustice upon injustice. Weaving and dodging in the hope of avoiding facing up to the truth. And yet Native American people were Canada's true inheritors. They deserved better then and they deserve better now.
ReplyDeleteThere is a paper trail that shows the government's intention was to make the aboriginals into white men.
ReplyDeleteSuch a sad and horrible situation.
ReplyDeleteIt's terrible that human beings are treated with such disdain simply because we "otherize" them.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading a story about a priest saying that they intended to kill the Indian and educate the child to be "civilized." I wonder who were really the civilized ones. The families had no choice, the children were forcibly taken. And they called themselves Christians.
ReplyDeleteThis was such a sad news story to read about over the past week. I am sure there have been similar incidents that are yet to be uncovered, sad as that will be to learn about.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you have to think back on this with regret, Red. You were so young and didn't know the system back then. It was a very sad situation. It's good that the wrongness of the situation is now being admitted.
ReplyDeletesmall or big i think we all have such regrets in our life when we reach on point of maturity and think low of our few particular previous actions but i would say here comes the destiny and we cannot change it no matter what .
ReplyDeletei am shocked by the behavior of government regarding discovered bodies ,they could have lessen the pain of parents by offering free service at least after all they are civilized people
Hi Red, Just saw this headline in the morning paper, June 24 ... "At least 750 unmarked graves have been found at a former school for Indigenous children in Canada, second such recent announcement." This is turning out to be really bad. Wondering if this kind of thing was taking place all over Canada back in the day?
ReplyDelete