Former Residential Schools Students Say Their Feelings About Christianity Are Complicated - June 16, 2010

The residential schools that aboriginal people were forced to attend were part of the Canadian experience for a century and a half.  They were too often marked by sexual, physical and emotional abuse.  As a part of the residential schools settlement of 2006, the federal government agreed to pay financial compensation to former students.  The four denominations that ran the boarding schools are required to participate in a truth and reconciliation process.   They have embraced this stipulation.

While many former residents of the schools welcome the religious leaders, their presence is making it difficult for some of the First Nations people to participate. Peter Yellowquill, former chief of Long Plain First Nation near Portage la Prairie Manitoba is going to take part in the first national event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and while he is fine with the process, he is leery of the presence of church leaders.  He will have the chance to speak about his experiences at the residential school where he grew up, but in his words “it’s going to be tough to share these difficult stories while looking your perpetrators in the eye.”

Phil Fontaine, former chief of the Assembly of First Nations, whose personal story brought the tragedy of the residential schools to the attention of Canadians in the 1990’s believes that bringing the native students and their former white teachers together is necessary for reconciliation, as painful as it will be for some.  “You can never achieve reconciliation unless you bring all the parties together,” he said. “This conversation has to be with the entire country, not just among us. We know the stories, now is our opportunity to share them with the country.”

The four denominations that played a part in the residential schools will play a role in the Truth and Reconciliation events this weekend in Winnipeg.  There will be an interfaith tent, ambassadors to hear survivor statements, lodging for those who come from out of town, and a display of school photos.  They see this as just the first step.

“We’re not naive enough to think that this will lead to us all living happily ever after,” said Brother Thomas Novak of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a Roman Catholic order that started working with natives in 1860. “I see it as one important step towards healing for a nation that was hurt by the experience of the schools.”

The events of the weekend will spotlight a curious phenomenon of modern aboriginal life.  Despite the 150 years of residential schools and all the negative that was a part of that experience, according to Statistics Canada, roughly two-thirds of Canadian natives consider themselves to be Christians.  Mr. Yellowquill puts it well: “The churches committed spiritual genocide.  But I am still a Christian man. It’s complicated.”

Most former students refuse to tar entire religions for abuses instigated by a government policy to “kill the Indian in the child.”   The question that begs to be asked is “why such mass clemency for the clergy?”

William Asikinack, head of indigenous studies at the First Nations University of Canada and a residential school student for five years answers that question this way: “It was certain messengers that caused the problem, not the message itself, and when you separate the philosophy of Christianity from the operation of the church, it’s not that much different from traditional first nations beliefs.”

There are others who take a much tougher stance.  Before they will attend the Truth and Reconciliation gatherings, they are demanding that the churches be honest about students who died at the schools.  The death rate reportedly reached 50 percent at some schools. 

Kevin Abbott is a former United Church minister and a controversial activist for aboriginal rights.  He stated that “not a single person has gone to trial for the death of an Indian residential student.”  His blunt assessment of the Truth and Reconciliation process is that “it’s sadistic to tell people to come to a place when the people who caused the death of their relatives are sitting there unaccountable. They are posing as healers, only because they have been exonerated by government.”

Thomas Novak, the Oblate Brother who has worked with natives in western Canada since 1982, responded to that comment by saying “some aboriginal people I know would be very happy if we all just packed up and left them to their own healing.  We are not going in a triumphal way like we did 100 years ago. We are going into this with a great humility. We have made mistakes. But we now try to be allies. We want to walk with them.”

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