A few days ago in Canada they discovered the bodies of 215 indigenous children who were at a residential school . This school operated by a church, from about 1890 to 1980 . The bodies were on the school property
Churches made an aggressive effort to get aboriginal children to their school. Children were forcibly taken from their parents. Many times the parents did not know where their children were. Just think what a trauma it would be if your young children were taken away from you?
The churches idea was Christianity , make the kids into little white men and beat the aboriginal culture out of them. Along the way there were many tragedies. Children were mistreated badly. In many cases they were beaten and assaulted. Living conditions were poor and many children died. Tuberculosis was common and at that time they didn't know much about treating it. Kids were crammed into small quarters so any germs could spread rapidly.
But 215 kids? Come on. There should have been some kind of communication. In many cases parents were not told of the death of their child.
Kids went back to their communities and were not able to cope in their home community. The original culture was gone.
In 1968 , when I was a local administrator in a small Innuit settlement, a child was murdered. The police came in and took the body out for forensic examination. About a year later one of the elders asked me where the child's body was. I couldn't tell him. I regret that I did not write and ask where the child's body was. So in the 1960's the authorities still played fast and lose with the way aboriginals were treated.
Now begins the sad task of identifying the bodies and telling families what happened to their ancestors.
Will we ever learn?
I heard that sad news on TV and thought of you...poor kids and parents:(
ReplyDeleteYes, it's one of my special interests.
DeleteWhat a tragedy. Was curious about the school where this happened and found a good news story ...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/05/29/mass-grave-215-bodies-found-indigenous-school-canada/5262768001/
There is a large aboriginal population in that area.
DeleteThis tragic news is beyond sad. The horror is that there are probably far more mass graves at former residential school sites. Canada has a lot of work to do to get over it's past and to begin treating Aboriginal people like human beings.
ReplyDeleteThe more and better searches we have the more that turns up. there are many losses and it's not known what happened to the person.
DeleteI read about this. It's a terrible story but it's certainly not specific to Canada.
ReplyDeleteBlack deaths in custody are still happening here and the recommendations of a royal commission decades ago haven't been enacted
Talk is cheap. Most of it here has been talk.
DeleteWhat tragic and sad news. Just to take the children from their parents is bad enough but then to allow this to happen is unforgivable.
ReplyDeleteWith new technology today we will find more burial sites.
DeleteMissionaries in Hawaii also tried to eradicate the Hawaiian culture in the name of Christianity as well but I haven't heard of anything like this happening.
ReplyDeleteWe've heard about this tragedy against the aboriginal community by the Catholic Church in Canada. It's horrible. I know Prime Minister Trudeau has asked for an apology from the pope and was refused. I wonder why.
I noticed the missionaries in Hawaii. I think there must have been a large population of Hawaii people and the missionary influence was kept under control.
DeleteIt must have been God's will. Strange how religions that purport to be holy, God-fearing and loving should have snuffed out the lives of so many children. Ironically, most indigenous cultures could have taught the champions of Christianity far more about morality, peacefulness and living in harmony with nature than truckloads of priests and nuns could ever do.
ReplyDeleteGood analogy here. the missionaries went in pre government and made their own rules. the government was all too happy to let the missionaries look after things.
DeleteHello Red,
ReplyDeleteIt is a tragedy, families should always stay together. We have had similar happen here when T.rump took children away from their parents at the border, now they can't find some of the children or the families. Take care, have a happy day and a great new week!
Yes , separating children from parents was bad right from the start.
DeleteWhat was wrongly thought right at the time seems so abhorrent now. We are getting better as long as the fundies don't mange to wrench us back to those ignorant times.
ReplyDeleteThe system was well intentioned but not needed. The assault and abuse could never be justified,
DeleteDear Red and Friends, no surprise. There's lots of "churches" that wrest the Scriptures. What they're really preaching is social darwinism.
ReplyDeletethey should have been able to understand that assault was just plane wrong.
DeleteYes it was on the news here too. A terrible crime and tragedy for everyone...
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised at the coverage this story had.
DeleteThe Residential School injustice is the greatest stain on our history. The entire ill-conceived programme was a travesty from start to finish and was conducted by people supposedly following the edicts of a loving god. These children were abused mercilessly, both mentally and physically, and the legacy of their mistreatment is still with us today. I never have really understood it when people say, "I am a proud Canadian" - substitute any other nationality you wish. I am not a proud Canadian, nor am I unproud (did I just invent a word?). I merely am Canadian. I am very proud of some of my country's achievements and dismayed and disgusted with others. Nothing quite fills me with revulsion to the extent this episode does.
ReplyDeleteThe history of our aboriginal treatment is one long litany of errors.
DeleteAbsolutely horrifying! What a shameful part of our country's history.
ReplyDeleteThe frustrating thing is that we don't seem to be able to do anything.
DeleteIt is a horrible reminder that people treated these children like they were animals, or worse. In the TV series "Anne With an E," one aboriginal child was highlighted and even when she tried to escape, the authorities found her and returned her to that awful school. So very sad.
ReplyDeleteMany children died in their attempt to run away from the school.
DeleteWe've got to learn. Until we get it right.
ReplyDeleteWe've been learning for a long time but it hasn't done much good.
DeleteI have not been able to write about this yet. It is beyond comprehension. Each school has the same legacy. Each child must be returned home. That is all I can say to this point.
ReplyDeleteEach child will be returned home but the task of identifying bodies will be huge.
DeleteI've been reading about this and am so saddened by it. I just don't understand humans. How do we not see that we're just one of many species on this planet. We're one, that's all. How hard is it to understand that? Maybe cruelty is in some genes and I just didn't get that gene.
ReplyDeleteBut shouldn't common sense tell us that assault and cruelty is just wrong?
DeleteI think the answer to your question is probably no, we will never learn. We just seem to keep perpetuating these sorts of things in different forms. It appears to just be human nature.
ReplyDeleteYou're right there are many examples and some of them recent. Separating little kids from parents at the border and locking them up it right up there on bad policies.
DeleteAnother example of the horrors that humans inflict on other humans. One group thinks they are superior to another and so tragedy follows. How often must we witness this before it stops? Will we never have peace for all?
ReplyDeleteIt's also about power. Humans seem to like to have power over others. Religious denominations seem to have a need for power over others.
DeleteThis is why China looks at our side and says we have no ground to criticize how they treat minorities. We are all guilty and even more so the churches that were accomplices.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if the powers that be are just ignorant or purposely using atrocities.
DeleteVery sad and tragic. It was on the news here too.
ReplyDeleteSadly with today's technology there's more to come. It was well known that kids were missing but it was difficult to find them.
DeleteMan's inhumanity to man is just astonishing, isn't it!?! I keep thinking we're getting past that, becoming more civilized, but sometimes I wonder.
ReplyDeleteThere are certainly modern day examples of assault and abuse.
DeleteThe history of many countries are really stained with tragic treatment of young children. Institutions seem to thing no one will ever know. We had a institution north of town that held mentally disabled and the cemetery is still out there with numbers on the graves. People with now treatable cures were kept in cages and when the died they buried them.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you mentioned the mental institutions. They were notorious for mistreating people.
DeleteAwful. Just awful. What those children and their families went through. And as you pointed out, even when the children went home, their lives were never the same as they would have been if they'd grown up in their own families. And to think the church saw this as right and good. So many similar stories across Canada and the world - religion has a lot to answer for.
ReplyDeleteThe churches got a little too zealous in saving souls and so force was used.
DeleteI saw this in our newspaper. It is just appalling, and certainly not the only case of mistreatment perpetrated on aboriginals by our white Christian "do gooders".
ReplyDeleteNow with modern technology they will find more bodies. they always knew there were graves but couldn't find them
DeleteDear Linda, you'll have this with "do-gooders," who enforce their salvation-by-works gospel - which is not the Gospel. Most religions preeech exactly that - that you have to do this, that, and the other thing, while hopping on one-foot, in order to be saved. All that effort is good for is making people (even more) vicious. Doesn't end well.
DeleteThis mistreatment of native people and poor people and people of color is not in the past; it's still in the present. It occurred in the Americas, in Ireland, in the Catholic church, wherever they were located. In England, in the poorhouses. Now we are all more aware of it, will it stop? We'll see.
ReplyDeleteYou make a good point that this is a world problem. Colonialism caused many problems.
DeleteThis is a legacy that continues to live with us. Abhorrent.
ReplyDeleteIt lives with us and in some cases is still going on.
ReplyDeleteThe most heartbreaking thing about this story is that it's not the first time I've heard a story like it. It happened many times, in many places. And no. I am sad to say that I don't think we'll ever learn.
ReplyDeletewhat a tragic thing!
ReplyDeleteHeartbreaking and horrifying.
ReplyDeleteWow. What a shocking story. It's amazing that such practices continued for so long and affected so many people at just this one location!
ReplyDeletein Anne with E on netflix i saw exactly what you mentioned here about aboriginal children whom church authorities took forcibly to church schools . from this little story in the show i got what might have happened in reality with native people .
ReplyDeletei wonder how one have right teach who get inside your place ,occupies it with power and want to turn everything according to his rules immediately ,and i wonder what he has to teach ?
authorities must have gentle approach to aboriginals and had let things work in natural way as it happens mostly now .
discovery of bodies in such big number sounds horrible and shocking indeed dear Red!