Calls to Action
- We call upon the Government of Canada to repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada.
- We call upon the federal government to develop with Aboriginal groups a joint strategy to eliminate educational and employment gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians.
- We call upon the federal government to eliminate the discrepancy in federal education funding for First Nations children being educated on reserves and those First Nations children being educated off reserves.
- We call upon the federal government to prepare and publish annual reports comparing funding for the education of First Nations children on and off reserves, as well as educational and income attainments of Aboriginal peoples in Canada compared with non-Aboriginal people.
- We call on the federal government to draft new Aboriginal education legislation with the full participation and informed consent of Aboriginal peoples. The new legislation would include a commitment to sufficient funding and would incorporate the following principles:
- Providing sufficient funding to close identified educational achievement gaps within one generation.
- Improving education attainment levels and success rates.
- Developing culturally appropriate curricula.
- Protecting the right to Aboriginal languages, including the teaching of Aboriginal languages as credit courses.
- Enabling parental and community responsibility, control, and accountability, similar to what parents enjoy in public school systems.
- Enabling parents to fully participate in the education of their children.
- Respecting and honouring Treaty relationships.
- We call upon the federal government to provide adequate funding to end the backlog of First Nations students seeking a post-secondary education.
- We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to develop culturally appropriate early childhood education programs for Aboriginal families.
Index
The History, Part 1 – Origins to 1939
Curriculum: Aboriginal culture and languages, 244, 737; apprenticeship system failure, 68-69; boarding schools (United States), 140; course outlines, 298-299; industrial boarding schools, 77-78, 237; physical exercise, 365-366; standards, 237, 300-301, 302-307; textbooks, 23, 301, 306-307, 327; vocational skills, 74.
Education: Aboriginal culture attitudes, 21-23; before residential schools, 151; colonization goals, 5, 21-23; Education Act (Ontario 1891), 520; imperialism, 20-23; Indian Act (1876), 109; Métis, 158; philosophy, 59, 65-66; provisions in treaties, 121-122, 178; quality, 227, 319-328, 332, 345; record of residential schools, 293-328; sex, 649.
Religious instruction: criticisms, 319; language of instruction, 96-97, 318; residential schools, 317-319; too much, 318.
The History, Part 2 – 1939 to 2000
Aboriginal cultural identity: ADR process, 565-566; civil claims for loss of denied, 560, 563-564; First Nations’ residential administration, 97; IRSSA funding of commemoration, 574; parent-school committees (1967), 481; policy of cultural genocide and, 579; post-school re-education, 481-482; potlatch ceremony, 128; traditional dance, 479; treatment in schools of, 126-132, 483-484, 491, 530.
Assimilation/integration of Aboriginal people: Aboriginal opposition to school integration, 11-12, 22-23, 26, 76-77, 78-79, 84-91, 97-98, 122; Aboriginal support of, 531; cadet haircuts and, 488; churches’ commitment to, 4-5; extracurricular activities, 462, 464, 490; federal government commitment to, 10-12, 13-14, 16-17, 23, 55-61, 99, 106, 107-108, 121-122; government terminology, 18-19; Hawthorn Report on, 20-21; high school integration, 71-79; inter-sociation proposal, 77; justification for residential schools, 576; policy of cultural genocide, 579.
Classroom life and conditions: general, 140-144; lack of classrooms and overcrowding, 10, 27, 59.
Curriculum: 1953 residential schools regulations, 51: general, 121-126; Aboriginal administration of, 89, 91; Aboriginal criticism of, 87-88, 358, 481-482, 529-530; Aboriginal languages in schools, 91, 97, 100, 117, 130, 132, 530-531, 542; academic versus vocational, 72; books and textbooks, 106-107, 118-120, 122-125; classroom experience, 141-144; controlled-cost funding system, 53; dietary education, 243, 251, 260, 263, 265-267, 268-269, 272, 278; half-day system, 132-133, 139; health care, 121; Québec history curriculum, 122-123; religious instruction, 30, 106-107, 126-127, 128, 142; textbooks and handbooks, criticism of, 122-126; traditional skills, 3, 40-41, 121; vocational training, 3, 36, 40-41, 47, 72, 133-134, 139, 541.
Educational outcomes: 1940s and 1950s statistics, 108-112; Aboriginal criticism of, 98; Aboriginal legacy of, 579; Aboriginal staff and, 104; agitators, 72; failure to progress, 140-142; former students in Vancouver, 107; half-day system, 132-133, 139 (see also manual labour by students); traditional and academic failure, 150-151. See also classroom life and conditions; curriculum.
Educational policy: Aboriginal administration of, 11-12, 22-23, 89-91, 91-99; admissions policy, 171-172; assimilation and, 16 (see also assimilation/integration of Aboriginal people); in drafts of new Indian Act, 17-18; federal contract of Aboriginal administration, 95-96; joint committee recommendations, 55-56; on languages, 126-127; Red Paper on, 22, 88-89; regular grade promotion, 111. See also curriculum.
Farming and gardening: as education, 115-116; Indian Affairs farm-loan programs, 149; nutrition and costs, 241, 251; runaways employment, 338, 339, 340; student labour and accidents, 136-137, 138, 139-140.
Handbooks for residential schools, 122-126, 166, 186, 495, 520, 521, 533, 534.
Languages: in Aboriginal-administered schools, 91, 100; Aboriginal languages in schools, 91, 97, 100, 117, 130, 132, 530-531, 542; apology for damage to Aboriginal, 553; deprivation of education and, 24; official use of Aboriginal, 91; percentage of students with Aboriginal, 110; religious instruction in Aboriginal, 106-107, 126-127; suppression of Aboriginal, 126-132, 481-482.
Manual labour by students: children of staff, 532; discipline and, 373; food preparation/ housekeeping, 137, 138; funding and, 38; half-day system, 24, 26, 27, 28-30, 31, 70, 106-107, 132-140, 141; half-day system, defence of, 36; health hazards/deaths, 136-137; laundry, 106-107, 136, 139; learning outcomes of, 29-30; parental resistance to, 358; potato peeling, 133; runaways, 335-336, 337, 353; staff workload and, 502; student experiences, 335; tuberculosis care and, 200-201.
The Inuit and Northern Experience
Curriculum and school year (North): 1948 to 1954 studies of, 52-55; aims of mission schools, 21-23; benefits disputed, 45-46, 49, 58-59, 158; criticism by Aboriginal groups of, 170-173; educational outcomes, 95-100; extracurricular activities, 120-122, 145-147, 151; Inuit languages taught, 92-93; religious instruction, 14-15, 48-49, 99; religious or academic/vocational, 14-15, 22-23, 66, 69, 80-81; runaways and, 131; school year, 90; southern education (for northern children), 25-26, 99-100, 177, 179; Survivors’ influence on, 5; traditional skills and academic/ vocational, 52-53; traditional skills lost, 38-39, 64-65; traditional skills or academic/ vocational, 45-48, 64-65, 93, 95-100, 170, 171; white (southern) cultural focus of, 37, 42, 43, 53, 87-89, 98-99, 154.
Discipline, punishment, and physical abuse: about, 4, 17-18, 26-27; abusive situation, 144, 187; Indian Affairs orders, 62; lack of order, 124; recruitment of students, 103-106, 139; regulation of, 122-127; reports on, 98-99; in small hostels, 160-161; student experiences, 37-38, 39-40.
Education, purpose of: general discussion, 45-55; value recognized/questioned by Inuit families, 39, 53, 158. See also curriculum and school year (North); parental and community resistance.
Educational standards: educational studies (North), 50, 52-55; reports and inspections, 48-50.
Education for Yukon Indians (Yukon Native Brotherhood, 1972), 170.
Education in Canada’s Northland (federal report, 1954): conclusions, 54-55.
Education rights, 11, 57.
Haircutting and washing, 37, 41-42, 44, 64, 107, 108, 183-184.
Numbers assigned to students, 44, 107.
Parental and community resistance: allegations of kidnapping by schools, 104-105; complaints to authorities, 61, 90-91, 94, 133, 135-136, 140; concern for care of children, 14, 115-116, 128, 137-141; to curriculum, 22; experience of separation, 106; giving up Indian status, 64; to lack of educational options, 23; moving to be close to children, 4, 57, 74, 153-154, 159; overview, 32-35; to overwork of children, 25; refusing Treaty payments, 34; removing and withholding children from schools, 33, 59, 60, 63-64, 67-68, 90, 131-132, 157, 159, 185; report by parents, 135-136; to separation distance, 20, 33, 67-68.
Runaways and truants, 44, 63, 64, 95, 130-132; overview, 35-36.
Staff of schools and hostels: alcohol and, 133; community relations with, 94-95; numbers at large hostels, 102; relations among staff and students, 139-140; salaries, 129; of small hostels, group/boarding homes, 151, 152, 154-156, 157-158, 159-161, 177; staff to student ratio, 127; supervision (ratio, training, etc.), 127-130, 153-154.
Teachers and instructors: federal policy of religious separation, 80-81, 94-95; lay teachers versus religious, 44, 54; living conditions, 63; qualifications, 48, 50, 52, 66, 88, 96, 97, 170; relations with community, 93-95; salaries, 23, 129; selection of students for Inuvik, 103; of small hostel staff, 155, 156; teacher/student ratio, 23, 84; turnover of, 61, 88; on washing people, etc., upon arrival, 107-108.
Travelling schools and other proposals, 47, 52, 79, 83, 90.
The Métis Experience
Curriculum, 31, 32-33.
Education: curriculum, 31, 32-33; religious instruction, 24, 31, 45, 48; skills learned, 8.
Missing Children and Unmarked Burials
Education, 36-42.
The Legacy
Reconciliation
Education, 117-157.