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On July 15, local time, the First Nations of Sekvi Pike in Kamloops, Canada, held a press conference to publish the initial report obtained by using ground-penetrating radar to detect the site of an Indian boarding school in Kamloops. Ground penetrating radar experts announced that graves of 200 children may have been found near the former site of the boarding school.
Since May this year, Canada has successively exposed the discovery of more than a thousand unnamed tombs and a large number of remains on the site of indigenous boarding schools, and a large number of indigenous children have been abused and raped in boarding schools, shocking Canada and the international community. What happened to these Aboriginal boarding schools back then? Indian House, a 2017 film that reflects the dark history of Aboriginal Boarding Schools in Canada, gives us the answer.
Only because they did not speak English Indigenous children were stuffed with a blackboard in their mouths
Shortly after the film Indian House began, Saul, an 8-year-old Aboriginal boy, was forced into a notorious Catholic boarding school, cut off long hair along with his Aboriginal classmates who entered the school, rudely washed by nuns with disinfectant powder, and forced to change his name. Saul's classmate Lonnie was reluctant to change his name and was immediately whipped by the nuns, who survived because he could speak English. Lonnie also had the nun's mouth stuffed into a chalkboard because he spoke the Aboriginal language at school.
1937 Canadian Kamloops Aboriginal Boarding School (Image: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada)
Only because of dependence on relatives Indigenous sisters were forced to commit suicide
At boarding school, Lonnie was not the only one who suffered misfortune. Saul's classmates Rebecca and Catherine are a pair of Aboriginal sisters. The young Catherine was very dependent on her sister in the strange and repressive environment of boarding school, but the nuns saw this as a sign of Catherine's weakness. In order to change the children's religious beliefs, the nuns advocated that Catherine should rely on God rather than her sister, and whenever the nun found out that Catherine was dependent on her sister, she ruthlessly locked Catherine in a dark confinement room.
Catherine couldn't bear this and committed suicide in the iron cage that kept her in the confinement room. Rebecca, who had lost her sister, cried bitterly and ended her young life with a knife on a snowy morning.
△ Students of Hingwark Indian Boarding School in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada (Image source: Reuters)
Just because of the color and race to win the ball game but get beaten
Compared with Lonnie and other students, Saul may be luckier. Saul was so passionate about hockey and talented in the sport that he joined the ice hockey team at school and gradually came to prominence in the field through hard practice. Growing up, he was adopted by an Aboriginal family and joined his adoptive father Fred's ice hockey team, who was also native like Saul. Saul slowly became a good hockey player with the love of his adoptive parents and the support of his teammates, and repeatedly defeated white teams and won games with his teammates, but they did not get the respect they deserved.
Whites generally believe that ice hockey is a white man's game. The more games Saul and his players won, the more they were insulted and ridiculed by the white players and spectators. Once, the players came to a restaurant to celebrate the victory of the game, but they were provoked by white guests, "Won an ice hockey game, you think you can eat here like a white person?" The unconvinced team members accepted the white man's provocation, but one by one they were beaten to the point of blue nose and swollen face, and they were extremely humiliated.
Students at the Hingwark Indian Boarding School in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, were cut their hair. (Image source: Reuters)
Later, Saul was spotted by Guy, the coach of an ice hockey team in Toronto, and joined his ice hockey team. However, what awaits Saul is the taunts of his teammates, the provocations of his opponents on the field, the injustice of the referees, the biased descriptions of the news media, and the applause of the audience, and people seem to see Saul's excellent skills, and always see his skin color and native identity.
The painful boarding school experience becomes a lifetime of trauma
Saul becomes manic and fights back against injustice, but gains from being sent out of the game and Guy's disappointment. Eventually, Saul leaves the hockey rink to wash dishes and work as a coolie, especially after meeting his former classmate Lonnie, saul recalls his painful memories of being at boarding school and drinks all day. Talented hockey players became alcoholics and went to the hospital for alcoholism.
The data shows that the odds of death for children in Canadian boarding schools are 1 in 25, compared to 1 in 26 deaths in World War II. (Image source: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)
Fictional movies are real and tragic reality
At the end of the film, the protagonist Saul finally returns to his Native friends and gets the spiritual belonging. "It's a fictional film, but it conveys a very true story." The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation once commented on the film "Indian House". However, in real life, many indigenous children who have entered boarding schools have died here, sleeping unknownly underground, and even if some people are lucky enough to survive, they will not escape the nightmare of boarding schools for the rest of their lives.
△ On June 18, near the former site of the Marivar Indian Boarding School in Saskatchewan, Canada, staff conducted a ground-penetrating radar search. (Image source: Reuters)
According to US media reports, the "inspiration" of The Canadian Aboriginal boarding school system came from the United States. Beginning with the so-called "Indian Civilization Act" of 1819, the United States implemented a series of laws and policies aimed at "assimilating Indians", establishing or funding boarding schools throughout the country and forcibly arranging for The enrollment of Indian children. Because both countries faced the so-called "Indian problem," in 1878, then Canadian Prime Minister John Macdonald sent a man to the United States to study the policies of the U.S. government.
In many indigenous tribes, long hair is a proud and sacred tradition. However, in boarding schools, any indigenous cultural activities are prohibited, and indigenous children cannot speak their mother tongue, wear traditional cultural clothing, and retain traditional cultural hairstyles. In the eyes of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the forced cutting of long hair by Indigenous children is "a powerful symbol of the revocation of Aboriginal culture, history and identity".
△ On July 1, people gathered in Toronto, Canada to mourn the victims of Indigenous boarding schools.
In addition, haircuts bring spiritual fear to Indigenous children. According to Rosalie, administrator of the Visitor Center at the Indian School in Phoenix, Arizona, in some Indigenous tribes, people only cut their hair when someone dies. Young children come to boarding schools, their hair is cut off, and they wonder if anyone has died.
In addition to the various cultural extermination measures imposed on indigenous children, boarding schools brutally destroy their lives and health. According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, at least 3,200 children died in boarding schools, meaning 1 in 45 students died. In the data records of child deaths in boarding schools, a quarter of the children's deaths are not recorded by gender, one third are not recorded by name, and one in two are not recorded by cause of death.
△ On June 21, people held a memorial service in Vancouver for the remains of children found on the site of the Kamloops Indian Boarding School. (Image source: Associated Press)
Deborah Lloyd's mother, a Canadian educator, was a survivor of the boarding school, but her mother was silent about her experience at the boarding school. A few years ago, Lloyd went to the old boarding school with her mother, and she still remembers how shocked her mother was, "she bent down at me, as if she didn't want to get too close to the boarding school." The mother also said, "Over there, there are corpses over there." Lloyd said she was able to feel her mother's grief and trauma.
Barry Kennedy, a survivor of a Marivar Indian Boarding School in Saskatchewan, Canada, also said his classmates may have been found in the unnamed graves found near the boarding school site, because some were kidnapped at night and never returned.
As Paul Walker, a survivor of the American Indian Boarding School, put it, he was a survivor who succeeded in being who he is now, "and some people don't have the opportunity to do so."
On May 28 of this year, British Columbia Aborigines found 215 remains near the former site of the Kamloops Indian Boarding School. According to the results of the investigation released on July 15, 200 children's graves were found near the former site of the school, and the number of indigenous children buried in the school and nearby areas reached more than 400. I wonder what kind of tragic story is behind these more than 400 remains?
Producer 丨 Tang Yi
Producer 丨 Zhao Xinyu
Editor 丨 Li Xia
Video 丨Du Junshuai
Voiced by 丨 Zhang Yuheng
Edit: Giabun
Source: CCTV news client