Media for social change

Ryerson, Residential Schools & Reconciliation, by Julie Pasila

The history of Canada’s Residential School System is shocking, shameful and surprisingly, largely unknown.  Much of what Canadians do seem to know about this history has been gleaned from fragmentary news clips that tell of the abuses committed at these institutions.  Some Canadians do not recognize the term ‘Residential School’ at all, and for those who do, few would be able to explain the complicated history of this schooling system and its significance to contemporary Canadian society. 

Residential Schools (also known as Industrial Schools) existed in Canada from the 1840’s until 1996.  These schools were designed to aggressively assimilate First Nations, Inuit and Métis children into a Euro-Canadian way of life.  These children were forcibly removed from their homes, separated from their families for long periods of time, and prevented from speaking their own languages or practicing their own non-Christian beliefs.  Children were raised for a ‘civilized’ life in agriculture at these institutions where mortality rates were high from abuse, suicide and disease. 

In 1998, two years after the last Canadian Residential School was closed, the government of Canada formally acknowledged its role in the development and long-term continuation of these institutions in a document known as the Statement of Reconciliation.  Despite this statement (intended it seems to close this chapter of Canadian history) the legacy of the Residential School System continues to live on through intergenerational impacts, a term that refers 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."[i]

The history of the Residential School System remains largely unknown because it is systematically ignored.  This history was not something that was taught in any of my high school classes and it was a fact that was alluded to, but ultimately glossed over in my undergraduate courses. I became interested in learning more about the Residential School System because of a particular connection that I now have to this history.  It was recently revealed to me in a class at Ryerson University (where I am currently enrolled as a full-time student) that Egerton Ryerson, founder of Ryerson University, was involved in the initial design of Canada’s Residential Schools. 

Ryerson’s involvement in this history has been downplayed by the University (he has apparently been cited simply as “a man of his time”), despite the fact that Ryerson, in a document published in 1847, made several telling suggestions for the design of these institutions. 

Ryerson recommended English-only instruction and religious indoctrination, a facet of the system that would assist in what is now frequently referred to as ‘cultural genocide.’[ii] Of this indoctrination he wrote: “It is a fact established by numerous experiments that the North American Indian cannot be civilized or preserved in a state of civilization except in connection with, if not by the influence of, not only religious instruction and sentiment but of religious feelings.”[iii]  Ryerson went on to recommend eight to twelve hours of labour per day during the summer months (in addition to the two to four hours of instruction that the children were to receive) making the purpose of his recommendations quite clear: these institutions, from their inception, were intended to strip Indigenous children of their traditional languages, beliefs and culture and to prepare them for a ‘productive’ and ‘civilized’ life in agriculture (seemingly because agriculture was all that these children were ‘fit’ to do).

Few Ryerson students are aware of the role that Egerton Ryerson played in the formation of the Residential School System, which is not surprising considering that this history, on a whole, has been largely silenced and ignored.  Ultimately, what’s needed for both Ryerson students and the public-at-large is awareness – this history, while both painful and despicable, should not be ignored.  It speaks volumes about the overall history of this country and its significance continues to resonate.

Awareness can at times be somewhat difficult to generate, particularly for histories that have been intentionally silenced or ignored.  Thankfully, there are some resources in existence that explain the history of the Canadian Residential School System in a thorough and thought-provoking way.

Where Are the Children? (launched in 2002) is an ongoing exhibition of archival photographs curated by the Iroquois photographer, Jeff Thomas.  Since the inception of this exhibition, this collection of images (limited to archival collections found in government, provincial and church archives) has been temporarily installed in venues across Canada and has had great success in raising awareness of the history and legacy of residential schools.  The exhibition has found a permanent home online (www.wherearethechildren.ca) where it has been displayed alongside multiple informative resources. 

The website for Where Are the Children? provides visitors with the complete photographic exhibition alongside an interactive history of the Residential School System, a timeline complete with maps that show sites of significance, and a “projector” that supplies stories from survivors of this schooling system. 

The exhibit alone is intensely thorough.  Photographs, arranged into chapters, tell of assimilation, describe school architecture and classroom scenes, detail school activities and show class pictures, among other things.  The images in this exhibition are brimming with information and, more than anything else, they are powerful.  One such image, contained in the section titled “Classroom Scenes” shows a group of young boys perched upon their beds saying their nightly prayers.  This photograph is a telling description of the religious indoctrination experiened by Indignious children and the long term removal of these children from their families. 

Where Are the Children? uses photography to reveal and describe a history that remains largely unknown.  It gives a face to this history and provides the viewer with an experience that is both educational and emotionally powerful.  Where Are the Children? also provides a hopeful element amid this shameful history by describing “Contemporary Role Models.”  These role models are members of the Aboriginal community who are “reclaiming their history, their dignity and are restoring their faith in their culture” and they show us that “the Survivors of the residential school experience are powerful symbols that a future does exist for Aboriginal people, dismissing the 19th- century myth of the vanishing Indian.”[iv]