Honouring the First Nations of Canada

In order to move forward as a nation, we have to acknowledge that what was done to 150,000 Indigenous residential school students and their families was wrong. Canadians should know their whole history and nothing should be whitewashed or overlooked. Taking responsibility includes teaching others the wrongs of the past and how we can move forward. We will not be able to make amends if we hide what we did. Residential schools were a part of Canada’s history from the 1830s to 1996 and their impact is still felt today. Families were torn apart and the conditions forced upon their children were appalling. According to the Truth and Reconciliation commission, children had to endure low food rations, overcrowding, hunger, disease, sexual assault, physical and emotional abuse, and cultural genocide with the purpose to “kill the Indian in the child.” This displays the type of thinking that many Canadians had, that First Nations people were inferior and their culture was brutal and savage. This is why a historical monument of a residential school is so important. It would give us many opportunities to educate and confront how First Nations people are viewed.