Canada ‘cultural genocide’ against First Nation – report
Canadian aboriginal women at Inquiry
[BBC News – 03 June 2015] A study has found rules that required Canadian aboriginals to attend state-funded church schools were responsible for “cultural genocide”. More than 130 residential schools operated across Canada.
The report released on Tuesday (June 2, 2015) found that First Nation children were often physically and sexually abused.
“They were stripped of their self-respect and they were stripped of their identity,” said Murray Sinclair, one of the study’s authors.
The Canadian government forced more than 150,000 First Nation children to attend these schools from the 19th Century until the 1970s. The schools sought to integrate the children into mainstream Canadian society, but in doing so rid them of their native culture.
The policies have been cited as a major factor in an epidemic of substance abuse on reservations. Students said they were beaten for speaking their native language and were separated from their parents and customs. ^
