By: Nabih C
Just a few days from now, it’ll be education week and boi got me thinking of how thankful I am for an equal and fair opportunity to participate in school. But, I damn sure know that not everyone gets this opportunity, especially with the amount of injustice in today’s world. I thought education is a system that gives everyone a fair and equal opportunity to learn, but Indigenous Canadians had to suffer due to the injustice faced by non-indigenous people within an unfair education system. Let me introduce you to the most toxic, disgusting, most f uped environment that indigenous people were put in, residential schools. Residential schools were a tortuous way to change the lives of countless indigenous people. From physical abuse to not being able to speak and learn their culture and language, it was legit a “living hell”. But, FINALLY, after 193 years (1828–2021) the government remembered all the horrific things they did and was like “oh yeah remember first nations, let’s give them some support so we can look good.” This was called the 94 Calls to Action. Did this help out indigenous Canadians, well let’s find out.
94 Calls to Action Report:
In June 2015, The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada wanted to figure out a way to help ‘restore the bond between indigenous and non-indigenous Canadians and help address the ongoing impact of residential schools on survivors and their families today. They wanted to do this so that all levels of the Canadian government can work together to change policies and programs for indigenous Canadians to help repair the harm caused by residential schools so that they can move forward. So they established something called the 94 Calls to Action Report. From what I’ve learned, all of a sudden after 193 years, the government decided to help indigenous Canadians? WOW. If you went through residential schools and your human rights were violated, you would’ve wanted an apology right away. Especially if you’ve had a target on your back and you haven’t done anything wrong, so typical… Anyways with that in mind, the one positive thing about this report was that it revealed the truth about residential schools, the government just got EXPOSED! They can live up to the pain and misrepresentation they freakin deserve. There are 94 actions within this report and it discusses 6 main areas: child welfare, education, health, justice, language and culture. Residential schools impacted all 6 of these areas tremendously which is why the First Nation people of Canada deserve what they have done. Each area has a tremendous impact, but I will be expanding on the education area as it correlates with the other 5 areas the most and is most impactful.
Actions #6–12 are regarded in the Education section of the report. Within these 6 actions, there are 3 in particular that I want to focus on as these 3 are most important. Firstly, is Action #7: “We call upon the federal government to develop with Aboriginal groups a joint strategy to eliminate educational gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians” (action currently underway). I AGREE that these gaps need to be addressed. Education is a ground-breaking tool that has the potential to CHANGE LIVES and trust me, From someone who is in grade 11, education has meant so much to me and so First Nation’s deserve this opportunity also. If I have become the person I am today with an education system that’s made me happy, First Nations residential school participants probably would’ve hated education as their everyday system was tormenting. It’s unfair if people who just have different beliefs than others aren’t able to get the same and fair system that everyone else gets, but sometimes that is just how life is, even if you did nothing wrong.
Micheal Cheena: The Survivor of Education Hell (Residential School)
Next is Action #6: “We call upon the Government of Canada to repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada (Spanking Law)” (action has not started yet). Wait, what? Yeah, fucking spanking. If you don’t know what Section 43 of the Criminal Code is, it states the following: Allow parents, caregivers and educators to use force toward a pupil or child as a means of correction, “if the force does not exceed what is reasonable under the circumstances’’. To enhance my understanding, I watched an interview on CBC, I learned the traumatizing story of Micheal Chenna from the Cree community who was physically abused by supervisors at Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre for sharing food with others, as that was a rule established by the school and he, unfortunately, got caught. I understand that you should get in trouble if you’re giving dangerous someone food and they cannot eat but simply punishing Micheal by physically abusing him for sharing his piece of bread is blasphemy. There’s no opportunity in life where someone can punish you for sharing food. I thought we were taught that “sharing is caring” but not. This sparked a memory of mine when I was in grade 10 history, The Holocaust. Although the context is different, I know that Jewish people had similar experiences to indigenous people as they both went through pain, for indigenous people it was through residential schools while for Jewish, it was at extermination camps.
Culture Emphasis on Early Childhood:
Arguably in my opinion is the most important request, Action #12. This action holds a special place inside my heart because of how important childhood cultural programs are. This action states the following: “We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial and Aboriginal governments to develop culturally appropriate early childhood education programs for Aboriginal families’’ (action currently underway). Oh man, anytime I hear the word culture it sits heavy inside my heart because it means so much to me. When I hear that they are calling to develop culturally appropriate early childhood education programs, it makes me sick in the stomach knowing that they weren’t able to express themselves through the lovely culture at a young age. At this age, it’s super vital to expose yourself to the myths and beliefs of your culture as it provides enormous benefits, trust me. When I was younger, about 7 or 8 years old, I attended Iqra Islamic School and it was such an amazing experience. It allowed me at such a young age to enhance my knowledge of my culture, it truly was special. Not only did I get to experience the normal education system but I was able to learn about my holy book (Quran), stories of my beloved prophets and angels, 5 pillars of Islam and the importance of prayer. This experience benefits me even today as I still use the knowledge gained from Iqra Islamic School for my everyday cultural activities. If my experience was great, I can’t even imagine the benefits it would have for First Nations. To all the current residential school survivors and Indigenous Canadians, I truly hope that you guys can have all of these requests accepted as what you guys went through decades ago is something that needs to be put on notice and to the government, fuck you!!!
