Shattered
Families and Lives Were Shattered
One of the greatest tragedies of our Canadian history was the legacy of Residential Schools, where families were separated and where children were abused. These institutions meant to assimilate Indigenous children into mainstream society instead inflicted profound psychological and physical trauma on generations.
Children were forcibly removed from their homes, stripped of their cultural identities, and subjected to harsh, inhumane treatment. The scars left by these experiences run deep, affecting not only the survivors but also their descendants. This dark chapter in our history serves as a painful reminder of the need for reconciliation, healing, and the preservation of Indigenous cultures and traditions. As a nation, we must acknowledge this past and commit to supporting and uplifting Indigenous communities to ensure such atrocities are never repeated.
Shattered Lives: The Genocide
Where the Spirit Lives impacted me and brought home the tragedy of the ‘residential schools.’
The film is about Aboriginal children in Canada being taken from their tribes to attend residential schools for assimilation into the majority culture. Written by Keith Ross Leckie and directed by Bruce Pittman, it aired on CBC Television in 1989.
The film starred Michelle St. John as Amelia, a young First Nations girl captured and confined to the residential school system of the 1930s. The system was an attempt to have Aboriginal youth assimilate into the majority European-inflicted and Canadian culture. Amelia resists assimilation and plans her escape.
The film’s cast includes Ann-Marie MacDonald and David Hamblen as teachers at the school. Contents 1 Plot2 Cast3 See also4 References5 External links Plot In 1937, a young First Nations girl named Ashtoh-Komi is kidnapped along with several other children from a village as part of a Canadian policy to educate First Nations children and assimilate them into Canadian/British society.
For a Genocide to Happen...
For genocide to happen, there must be certain preconditions. Foremost among them is a national culture that does not place a high value on human life.
A totalitarian society, with its assumed superior ideology, is also a precondition for genocidal acts. [80] In addition, members of the dominant society must perceive their potential victims as less than fully human: as “pagans,” “savages,” “uncouth barbarians,” “unbelievers,” “effete degenerates,” “ritual outlaws,” “racial inferiors,” “class antagonists,” “counterrevolutionaries,” and so on. [81] In themselves, these conditions are not enough for the perpetrators to commit genocide. To do that is, to commit genocide, the perpetrators need a strong, centralized authority and bureaucratic organization as well as pathological individuals and criminals. Also required is a campaign of vilification and dehumanization of the victims by the perpetrators, who are usually new states or new regimes attempting to impose conformity to a new ideology and its model of society. M. Hassan Kakar[82]
One can see clearly that this occurred with the First Nations peoples. Dan Pelletier, the Program Director for the last program, Healing the Nation-One Family At A Time in recognizing what this ministry, along with Canadian Heritage, was doing to me personally and professionally and that their mandate was to undermine the organization I/we began, stated: “Arlene, they’re treating you like an Indian! Now you know what it’s like.“
Sadly, the First Nations people are still at the mercy of the government. They are our poorest, their families are still fractured, their wounds are still deep, the addictions to cover up their collective ‘pain and suffering’ is high, violence and breaking ‘white man’s laws’ puts them behind bars and keeps too many of them dependent on government.
The number of Aboriginal babies in care is too high, and infanticide among them is too high, like with Autumn and Lily. These deaths continue, and no one hears about them because the government denies them Coroner’s Inquests. They simply conclude that these deaths are Undetermined or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), as was the case with Autumn (Undetermined) and Lily (SIDS) –and the genocide continues.
‘Deep healing’ is required. I believe most of this ‘at risk’ target group wants this healing, but it is not there for the most part. Short-term ‘band-aid’ solutions are not very successful, and the ‘powers-to-be’ know this.
Anyone doing great work, like the organization the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and The Anchorage, is undermined, and the genocide continues.
They undermine these organizations by sending in their own, creating chaos and instability. For example, they do it by sending in Aboriginal personnel like Joyce LaPrise, who will do their dirty work, who will ‘sell their soul,’ having only their self-interests at heart,’ doing whatever to ‘get ahead’ and personally being manipulated like they did her ancestors giving them ‘spirits’ – ‘liquor/booze’ for their furs.
Joyce and I got along until her plan went into high gear, and she said to me before the first eviction: “What I’m about to do goes against my integrity as a person, but I have to do it, or I will never get a job anywhere in Canada.” Did she feel manipulated? Regardless, she did it, and her integrity went down the drain -and the genocide continues…
Missing and murdered Aboriginal women can not be fully addressed without finding and, prosecuting and offering healing to them and their families, and more violence and heartache and missing persons continue, and the genocide continues.
Trying to turn back the hands of time is impossible, but healing deep emotional wounds is. A rehabilitation program needs to include non-Aboriginal people to experience truth, reconciliation and healing between all of us. As a nation, we can heal together, hence the program Healing the Nation-One Family At A Time.
The depth of the emotional wounds and trauma from sexual abuse left many with post-trauma and addictions and ongoing injury to their families, doomed to repeat the past injuries. I am considering adding the evaluation of the Healing the Nation-One Family At A Time program that The Anchorage ran in the days ahead, as Canadian taxpayers should know how wisely their dollars were spent. I can assure you they were spent sparingly and wisely and helped many to heal and move their lives forward.
This program was successful and could be a model for developing another one if funding and support are forthcoming. One of the project officers (Marita Bray) told me that she thought that the government had it in for me because the program was too successful (for this marginalized, high-risk group). Question: If there was any truth in that statement, could it be possible that the government does not really want to see them heal and be productive? If that’s not true, then they’ll support any and all healing programs to assist and empower them and not simply deal with their rage by locking them up for as long as possible. THAT’S NOT HEALING OUR NATION!
Aboriginal Christianity the Way it Was Meant to Be...
Tragically, Jesus Christ was seen as a ‘white man’s’ religion and was rejected by so many First Nations/Aboriginal peoples when, in fact, He was more Aboriginal than white.
Both in skin colour and the nomadic way He lived and shared His message of ‘godly living’ and how we can have eternal life. In the early 90s, I took a seminary course at the Canadian Theological Seminary that was taught by a Mohawk First Nation professor, Adrian Jacobs. His course was entitled: ‘Aboriginal Christianity-The Way It Was Meant To Be and was based on his book with the same title (see picture). The following is a critique of his book found online: “The Church desperately needs Native leaders, like Adrian Jacobs, Cayuga Nation, who can articulate the theology and impact of Christ’s sanctification among First Nations people and their cultures.
In the class I took, entitled Aboriginal Christianity – The Way It Was Meant to Be, Adrian Jacobs compared the frailty of the old missions ‘wine skins’ that are still currently used in native missions’ work must incorporate their native traditional ways, contextualizing the message to reach many of his people. He brought solid scholarly perspectives from the Word of God from an Aboriginal perspective to challenge these old mindsets.
When I took his class, we had some outside classes to emphasize that this is where his people needed to be to relate to Jesus Christ. He stressed that the church was not a building but was the people beyond the walls of a church or temple. This is where Jesus spoke to people on a hillside and not in a formal setting. Many would’ve been able to relate and accept Jesus Christ if it were not for the tragedy of residential schools and formal, forced religion.
The Irony
IRONY: In certain kinds of situational or historical irony, a factual truth is highlighted by some person’s complete ignorance of it or his belief in its opposite. The psychologist Martin, in The Psychology of Humour, makes it quite clear that irony is where “the literal meaning is opposite to the intended.”
Jesus Christ was NOT the one who brought ‘pain and suffering’ to the Aboriginal First Nations peoples. Still, it was our government institutions and the religious ‘non-Aboriginal’ population who deemed they were superior and knew what was best for them. Breaking up the integrity of their families back then tragically impacts them today. Break up a family, and you control their destiny.
Bruised and broken families perpetuate it to others in their families. Unless personal healing is achieved and generational acquired curses are reversed, they will remain the same. Hence, “Healing the Nation-One Family At A Time. “
The destiny that the Government of Canada had for the First Nations peoples was a destiny ‘hatched in hell.’ They knowingly or unknowingly created this genocide, but the end result was the same – disastrous -TRAGIC! and was not what Jesus would have been OK with.
Healing the Legacy Will Take a Healer -It Will Take Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ of Nazareth had so much in common with the Aboriginal and First Nations peoples.
He was:● Olive-skinned– Although He was perceived as the 'white man's’ religion, He was not 'white.'● Nor was He religious. He came through the Jewish lineage, but He was God with us, Emmanuel, for all mankind. He represented us all.● Part of a tribe,● Abused, demeaned, rejected, shamed, scorned and beaten.● Crucified by government authorities and humiliated.● Stricken with grief and dying● Separated from his mother, family and friends, he shared in their grief, helpless to change the course of history.● Shamed and stripped naked and beaten beyond recognition and was nailed to a cross, feeling helpless to change the course of his life since He came to die for all of our sins.
Isaiah 53:5 Easy-to-Read Version (ERV) says: "5But he was being punished for what we did. He was crushed because of our guilt. He took the punishment we deserved, and this brought us peace. Philippians 2:3-5 ESV
Oh Canada...
As Canadians, we are a melting pot. Colonization is here to stay and is never going away. So we need to keep the good and change what is not. First Nations peoples are proud Canadians, too. Today, July 01, 2015, I watched the Canada Day program from Ottawa and particularly noted the ‘wise words’ of our Governor General, Mr. Johnson:
‘THE TIME HAS COME TO PUT OUR PLANS INTO ACTION. THE SUM OF ITS PARTS IS GREATER THAN ANY ONE PART’.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is ‘short-sighted’ when he claims what is happening with the missing and murdered Aboriginal women is not a social problem but a criminal one. This is a ‘mindset’ that MUST GO. The crimes are an outcome of a social problem of broken families and lives caused by what was done to the First Nations peoples. Claiming this is unrelated to a social problem is IGNORANT and will never support healing programs.
This simply perpetuates the systemic disease of ignorance and more ‘pain and suffering’ rather than addressing the social problems that are an outcome of what colonization and our collective history have afforded the Aboriginal peoples. Prime Minister Harper has also claimed that colonization never occurred in Canada.
First Nations people are the first people in Canada and are also proud Canadians. One such young Aboriginal girl who is a proud Canadian sings our national anthem in English and in her own language. Enjoy...