1

ASSIMILATION OF THE ABORIGINAL COMMUNITY

The Aboriginal Community

Nirali Parmar

NorQuest College

ENGL 2550 AO1

Assignment 2c: Aboriginal Community

Taylor Scanlon

27 Nov, 2020
2
ASSIMILATION OF THE ABORIGINAL COMMUNITY

Abstract

The adoption of Euro-Canadian culture was of negative and positive impact on the

aboriginals. The negative implications focus on residential schools, domestic

violence in the Aboriginal community, and the environmental exploitation of the

Euro-Canadians' Aboriginals. The positive impacts include treaty rights, which

aimed to end the fighting and encourage better relations between the Euro-

Canadian and the Aboriginals, protection of indigenous rights to foster language,

culture, economic development, and the indigenous legal system ways of

governance. This research work aims to create a collaborative relationship between

the Euro-Canadians and the Aboriginals to minimize conflict in Canadian society.

3
ASSIMILATION OF THE ABORIGINAL COMMUNITY

The impacts of the aboriginal community

First Nations were the first inhabitants of Canada. The European newcomers

destroyed their way of life. They harmed the environment by hunting and killing

the entire population, thus depleting the primary food source for First Nations.

First Nations lost approximately 98% of their land and were forced to live in

isolated reserves. More importantly, they lost their identity. Their children were

sent to residential schools where they were forcibly converted to Christianity and

often abused. Their ceremonies were forbidden, and they had no political voice.

Many First Nations people died due to European diseases such as smallpox.

European colonization destroyed their way of life and caused anger and resentment

that still exists today. The Euro- Canadian wanted the First Nations to oblige to

their norms, beliefs, and culture to maximize economic gain on their land.

Residential school

The residential school trauma impacted the aboriginal community

physically, emotionally, cognitively, spiritually, and relationally. The residential

school prohibited using Aboriginal language and their tradition, teachings,

practices, and customs. Children were taken away from their families and

communities' care to residential schools, a system of institutionalized education

and care that lasted well over a hundred years. The residential school system was

intended to "kill the Indian in the child." Many, including former Prime Minister of
4
ASSIMILATION OF THE ABORIGINAL COMMUNITY

Canada Paul Martin, have since recognized the schools' implementation as an act

of cultural genocide which has had rippling multigenerational effects on survivors,

their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren (Allan, & Smylie, 2015).

The sexual, emotional, physical, mental, spiritual, and cultural abuse experienced

by generations of Indigenous children who survived residential schools has

resulted in deeply painful impacts on the physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental

health of survivors, their families, and communities. This does not acknowledge

the effects of the tremendous loss experienced by those families and communities

whose children never returned, whose precious lives did not survive these schools'

horrors. Because the impacts of residential schools are intergenerational, many

aboriginal people were born into families and communities struggling with the

effects of trauma for many years. The result of intergenerational trauma is

reinforced by racist attitudes that continue to permeate Canadian society. As

concerns about poor conditions and widespread abuses surfaced, residential

schools' support began to wane in the late 1940s and into the 1950s. This gave way

to a new wave of assimilationist practices, starting in the 1950s and peaking in the

1960s. There was an enormous influx of Indigenous children taken into child

welfare agencies, which is now known as the Sixties Scoop. This era of mass

apprehension meant that in the matter of a decade, approximately one in three

5
ASSIMILATION OF THE ABORIGINAL COMMUNITY

Indigenous children was apprehended from the care of their families and

communities (Allan & Smylie, 2015).

Domestic violence, risk and protective factors

The process of colonization has resulted in domestic violence, risk and

protective factors in the aboriginal community, Indigenous women are more likely

to face domestic violence than men, and they are vulnerable to economic

dependency on an abusive partner. Indigenous women are 2.7 times more likely to

have reported experiencing violent victimization than non-Aboriginal women in

the Canadian provinces. Indigenous women were nearly twice as likely as non-

Indigenous women to report having experienced emotional or financial abuse and

three times as likely to report being a victim of spousal abuse. A few indigenous

women experience injustice not only based on gender but also race and class.

Indigenous women are more likely to experience a poor physical environment,

low-quality housing, lower socio-economic status, lower level of education, and

fewer opportunities for employment than non-indigenous women. Age is also a

risk factor for domestic violence, with younger women ages 20 to 24 being more

likely to experience domestic or sexual violence. Indigenous women have a lower

life expectancy, elevated morbidity rates, and elevated suicide rates than non-

Aboriginal women. Aboriginal women living on reserves have significantly higher

coronary heart disease rates, cancer, cerebrovascular disease, and other chronic
6
ASSIMILATION OF THE ABORIGINAL COMMUNITY

illnesses than non- Indigenous Canadian women. A substantially more significant

percentage of indigenous women living off-reserve, in all age groups, report fair or

poor health than non-Aboriginal women. Forty-one percent of Aboriginal women

aged 55-64 reported fair or poor health, compared to 19 percent of women in the

same age group among the total Canadian population (Goulet, Lorenzetti, Walsh,

& Claussen, 2016). Indigenous women face severe marginalization in Canadian

society, reflected in the increased likelihood of homelessness, particularly in urban

areas, living in poverty, poorer health, under or unemployment, violence, and

incarceration (Allan & Smylie, 2015). High rates of Post-Traumatic Stress

Disorder, suicide, and other mental health conditions can be considered an impact

of systemic racism against Indigenous people in the form of past and current

colonial policies and their implementation (Allan & Smylie, 2015. The residential

school had impacts on the physical and social health of children who attended them

and on the generations that followed. These impacts have included medical

conditions, mental health issues, post-traumatic stress disorder, changes to spiritual

practices, loss of languages and traditional knowledge, violence, suicide, and

effects on gender roles, childrearing, and family relationships. The trauma of

residential schools caused many survivors to suffer powerlessness and low self-

esteem. Many forms of violence were normalized in residential schools, from

teachers to the students and students themselves. For survivors, abusive and violent
7
ASSIMILATION OF THE ABORIGINAL COMMUNITY

behaviors, often combined with alcohol and drug abuse, are legacies of their time

at the schools. Many survivors came to accept violence as a norm due to their

trauma and passed this down to new generations. Survivors of residential schools

and their families still struggle to find peace. Moreover, many residential schools

were severely underfunded, providing poor nutrition and living conditions for

children in their care, leading to illness and death.

Environmental Exploitation

Environmental exploitation of the Aboriginals has led to the Europeans

aggressively taking lands from Indigenous peoples and, over time, displaced and

then greatly outnumbered them. They also ignored that Indigenous peoples had

used the grounds for thousands of years to hunt, trapping, fish, travel, and more.

They even didn’t acknowledge that Indigenous peoples lived in thousands of

distinct societies that formed hundreds of nations with languages, cultures, systems

of governance, and trade relations unique. The Indian Act also controlled and

constrained Indigenous peoples’ relationship to the land. For example, changes to

the Indian Act allowed nearby towns and cities to remove First Nations people

from reserve lands when the city wanted the land for projects like roads and

railways. The Act did not require any consultation with people living on the

reserve. Canada’s history of resource extraction has changed the relationship

between Indigenous people and their land to support so-called economic

8
ASSIMILATION OF THE ABORIGINAL COMMUNITY

development. This happened first with European contact when furs, fish, and

lumber were taken. It continues today, with companies taking lumber and minerals

and using water for hydro projects. Contrast the amount of wealth in the south of

Canada to the poverty in the north. Minerals that generate huge profits, for

example, are extracted in the north. But little of that wealth is invested locally.

Those who benefit most are corporate owners and shareholders elsewhere

(FemNorthNet, 2016).

Conclusion

After converting my research work, the treaty rights and protection of

indigenous rights must help to no small extent ensure peace and friendliness

between the Euro-Canadian and the aboriginals. The Indigenous peoples have the

right not to be subjected to forced assimilation or destruction of their culture. The

misunderstanding between the Euro-Canadian and the locals should come to an

end. They should forget the past and focus on building a better future through

reconciliation and mediation.

9
ASSIMILATION OF THE ABORIGINAL COMMUNITY

References

Allan, B. & Smylie, J. (2015): First Peoples, Second Class Treatment: The Role of

Racism in the Health and Wellbeing of Indigenous People in Canada,

Retrieved from https://www.wellesleyinstitute.com

Goulet, S., Lorenzetti, L., Walsh. C. A., Wells, L & Claussen, C. (2016). First

Peoples Child & Family Review, Understanding the Environment: Domestic

Violence and Prevention in Urban Aboriginal Communities, 11(1), 5-20.

MacDowell, L. S. (2012): An Environmental History of Canada. Retrieved from

http://books.google.ca/

FemNorthNet. (2016). Colonialism and its Impacts. Resource Development in

Northern Communities: Local Women Matter #3. Ottawa: Canadian

Research Institute for the Advancement of Women.