CANADA
Canada.com
BY SIAN THOMSON, THE COURIER-ISLANDER NOVEMBER 6, 2013
Carihi teacher Ray Wilson looks at his oldest daughter, who is soon turning five years old, and knows if he lived back when Residential Schools were in existence, now would be the time “they” would be coming for her.
“They” are the Government of Canada who, according to survivors of Residential Schools, aimed to destroy Aboriginal culture by assimilating Aboriginal children into “good Christian Canadians”. Under the Indian Act of 1876, all Aboriginal people were, by legal definition, wards of the state. School administrators of approximately 143 schools were assigned guardianship, which meant they received full parental rights.
Three of those schools were on Vancouver Island. “Imagine your five year old being taken away from you and sent to a school where you would have no contact and likely not see them again,” said Wilson, who is from Cape Mudge and, after graduating with his teaching degree, returned to Carihi to teach.
“What would you have done? Imagine if there were no children anywhere in your community, They were all gone. What would that do to the psyche of the adults there?” he said.
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