RHET-1105-005 Academic Writing Multidisciplinary

Assignment One: Outline & Paragraph

Student: Jose Jaramillo
Student #: 3075270
Assignment #2: Writing a summary

In this report Murray Sinclair and A.C. Hamilton present a summary of the history of the

residential school system in Canada, and an account of the damage it caused to aboriginal communities.

This report emerged from the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry, instituted by the province of Manitoba in 1988.

As they clearly point out The residential school system was a conscious, deliberate and often brutal

attempt to force Aboriginal people to assimilate into mainstream society (McLeod Rogers and Taylor

368). The Residential School System forced the aboriginal children away from their own culture and

society.

Since early contact with aboriginal communities Europeans departed from an assumption of

their superiority and the consequent idea that Indians would have to assimilate to their form of society.

In order to do that, the Indians had to be civilized. The early missionaries also thought that the task of

assimilating Aboriginal people was almost impossible if they continued to live in their own communities,

because they needed to get away from what were considered wrong values. With their actions and

ideas, the missionaries laid the foundations for future misconceptions about Indigenous values and

practices. One example of that is the aboriginal tradition on child rearing. Although Aboriginal parents

raised their children with values such as responsibility, self-reliance, proper conduct and spiritual

concepts, the missionaries condemned Aboriginal child-rearing methods as being negligent,

irresponsible, and uncivilized (McLeod Rogers and Taylor 369).

The misconceptions about Aboriginal culture and societies and the loss of their independence in

financial, political, social or educational matters made the initial civilizing idea of the missionaries to

evolve into a government policy. The government then tried to use education as vehicle to reach the

goal of assimilating Aboriginal people. The federal government delegated that job to religious
organizations through the Indian Act, encouraging the opening of residential schools. These institutions

had the goal to impress all aspects of European life upon Aboriginal children. The underlying idea was

that Indians had to assimilate to good Christian values and get away from their uncivilized pagan ways.

The schools had a devastating effect in Aboriginal communities. In the history of residential

schools there are many examples of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. For instance, students were

punished physically if the spoke their own native language. The education received was also

substandard. Only a few aboriginal people achieved more than a grade five.

After the Second World War the government started reconsidering its assimilation policy but

the effects of the residential schools were already astounding. The system tore apart families and

caused denigration to Aboriginal cultures, customs and religion, and mainly, a loss of identity.

Testimonies collected during the Inquiry are evidence of that. An example is Janet Ross who described

how she lost her mother while at residential school, while also been given a negative image of Indian

people, leaving her with poor self-esteem (McLeod Rogers and Taylor 370).

The loss of children and the economic destruction of aboriginal societies have generated social

chaos, with high poverty and suicide rates, lower education levels, alcoholism and crime. Individuals of

these communities suffer of low self-esteem, confusion of cultural identity, and distrust to authority.

The residential schools also broke down aboriginal child rearing methods by eliminating the help

and input in from extended family in rising children. It is only recently that children are been raised at

home in aboriginal communities which is new for a lot of its members. Current aboriginal parents dont

have the experience of having grown up in a unified family.

The authors end their report by stating that the damage left behind by the residential schools is

still evident today, as Aboriginal people struggle to recapture their cultural practices and beliefs. The

return of self-identity and self-esteem is a slow process. (McLeod Rogers and Taylor 371).
Works Cited

McLeod Rogers, Jaqueline and Catherine Taylor. Across the disciplines: academic writing and reading.

Toronto, ON: Pearson Canada, 2011.