Residential schools were established by the Canadian government from 1620-1996 to assimilate Aboriginal students into European culture. Students endured poor conditions, including harsh discipline, physical and sexual abuse, malnutrition, and disease. They were forbidden from speaking their native languages and practicing their cultures. Many students never saw their families. Thousands of students died in the schools due to illness, malnutrition, accidents, and suicide. Survivors often suffer from PTSD and lost connections to their culture and families. Formal apologies have been made by churches and the Canadian government for the inhumane system.

1. Life as a Student in
Residential School
Chantal Lee (2-2)

2. What are Residential Schools?
• Residential schools were schools that were
established by the Canadian government
and administered by churches from 1620
up until 1996
• These schools were meant for Aboriginal
students
• Many of these students were forced to
attend and were physically and sexually
abused at school by teachers

3. Half-Day System
• Residential schools operated on a half-
day system, meaning that half the day
was spent in the classroom doing
academic work and the other half was
spent on doing chores, such as milking
cows and washing the floor
• This was done so that the schools
could save money on academic
resources

4. Academics
• Students were taught numeracy, reading,
and writing
• Students were also forced to study
Christianity
• This was only taught for half the day, while
the other half of the day was spent on
doing chores
• Many of the things they were taught were
completely new to them so the students
had a hard time adjusting to the European
style of education
A screenshot from a propaganda video for
residential schools

5. Chores
• The students were required to do
chores everyday
• Male students would milk the cows,
feed the animals, farm, grow gardens,
chop wood, and repair shoes
• Female students would clean, cook,
do laundry, wash dishes, and sew
• The students would work long hours
on their labour intensive chores

6. Haircut
• Students had their hair cut the very first week
they arrived in residential school
• This was done so that they could be stripped
away from their culture, since in Aboriginal
culture, hair is a representation of one’s pride
• All the students were given the same haircut
so that their would be no individuality
• It has been reported that many of the
students cried when they got their hair cut at
residential school

7. Away from Home
• Aboriginal children were taken away from
the reserves in which they resided in to
attend residential school
• This was done to assimilate the Aboriginal
people into European culture
• Families only got to see their children once
or twice a year
• In 1920, the Indian Act made it mandatory
for every Aboriginal child to attend
residential schools

8. Culture Shock
• When students were first placed in
residential schools, they experienced a
culture shock
• They had to learn how to speak English
and French, since speaking in their
mother tongue was forbidden
• Students had to convert to Christianity
despite not believing in Christian beliefs
• They learned numeracy, reading, and
writing, which were new to them

9. Isolation
• Students were isolated from their families after
being brought to residential schools
• Most students could only see their family 1-2x a
year, while some could not see their families at all
• However, many students could not communicate
with their family members when they visited them
because they had forgotten how to speak their
mother tongue at residential school
• Females and males were separated in school, so
there was not a lot of interaction between the two
sexes

10. Diet
• Food at residential schools were often
cheap to make and had little to no
nutritional value
• As a result of this, many of the students
were malnourished
• Students were served the same mushy and
tasteless oatmeal every day
• Poor dieting contributed to the high death
rate of Aboriginal students in residential
schools

11. Clothing
• The clothing provided at residential
schools were ill-fitting and shabby
• The winter clothing provided was thin,
so it did not keep the children warm
• Many grew out of their clothes, but
were not given new sizes
• Everyone had the same clothes—there
was no individuality

12. Sleep
• Many students had problems sleeping in
residential school due to anxiety
• Once a school staff member were to close the
lights, the students were expected to fall asleep
• If a students were to wet their bed or be caught
talking during sleeping hours, they would be
punished
• Some children were forced to sleep outside as
punishment

13. Just a Number
• Aboriginal students had to either
change their name to a Christian name
or be given a number
• A number was assigned to Aboriginal
students as their new identity; teachers
would call students by their number
rather than the name they were given at
birth
• This was to dehumanize them and
make them feel powerless

14. Brainwashing
• Aboriginal students were brainwashed into
thinking that Aboriginal culture was inferior to
European culture
• This made the students wish that they were White
since they were ashamed of their own ethnicity
• Students were stripped away from their cultural
beliefs, which were replaced with Western
ideologies
• Because of this, many of the students had
forgotten their mother-tongue and the ancestral
stories that were told to them before they went to
residential school

15. Christianity
• Students started the day and ended the day
with the “Lord’s Prayer”
• They were required to attend mass every
Saturday evening and Sunday morning at
church
• All students were expected to participate in
religious activities, despite not being
Christian
• If students refused to pray, they would get
whipped with a strap as punishment

16. Punishments
• Aboriginal students were punished for
speaking their mother tongue, talking
back to the teacher, not doing homework,
and refusing to pray
• Teachers would punish their students by
whipping them with a strap
• The more a student misbehaved, the more
whips they would get with the strap

17. Abuse
• Residential students suffered from
verbal, physical, and sexual abuse from
corrupt nuns and priests
• The schools brainwashed the students
into thinking that Aboriginal culture is
inferior to European culture, which
made many of the students ashamed
of who they were
• Students were brutally whipped with a
strap for misbehaving A woman describing the verbal and physical abuse that
she suffered from in residential school

18. Inhumane Experiments
• Nutritional experiments were done on Aboriginal
students, where they were purposely starved and
then given newly invented vitamin supplements
so that doctors could see the effectiveness of it
• At a residential school called St. Mary’s, students
were given an “experimental flour mixture that
was illegal in the rest of Canada”
• Other non-consensual experiments included
forbidding the students to brush their teeth,
which resulted in tooth decay“Nurse takes blood sample of student at Indian School in
Port Alberni during nutrition experiments (1940s)”
– Library and Archives Canada

19. Sterilization
• Students were often sterilized in
residential schools
• This was done by school officials to
prevent Aboriginal population growth
• This was also done to prevent female
students from getting pregnant after
being raped by school staff members

20. Resistance
• Some students refused to cooperate with the
schools
• There have been cases where students tried to
strike the teacher back, stole food and supplies,
and ran away from the school
• There have also been cases where students had
burned down their schools
• Parents of residential school students protested
the Indian Act, which made it mandatory for
Aboriginal students to attend residential schools

21. Illnesses
• Aboriginal students experienced many
illnesses including smallpox and
tuberculosis
• Students often became sick with the
cold in the winter due to their thin
winter uniforms which provided little
warmth
• Tuberculosis was common because the
schools were unsanitary and had a
poor ventilation system

22. Deaths
• It has been reported that up to 6,000
students had died in residential schools
• The causes of these deaths include suicide,
illnesses, and starvation
• There have been reported cases of young
girls tying socks and towels together to
form a noose to hang themselves
• For some students, suicide was an escape
from their harsh life at school

23. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Many residential school survivors
experience Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD) after their time in residential school
• Symptoms include having nightmares about
their time in residential school, anxiety
attacks, and depression
• Children of residential school survivors are
also affected because their parents do not
show signs of love towards them, since they
had forgotten how to love in residential
school A screenshot of a video of residential school survivors
describing their time at school and how it has affected
them afterwards

24. Positive Experiences
• Some residential school survivors reported
having positive experiences in residential
school
• Some have claimed that they learned very
valuable domestic skills, which include
cooking , sewing, and cleaning
• Others have said that they made really close
friends in residential school
• Although there are some people who report
having positive experiences in residential
school, the majority of Aboriginal students
had a horrible experience

25. Apologies
• Formal apology from the United Church of
Canada to the First Nations people in 1986
• Apology from the Missionary Oblates of
Mary Immaculate to the First Nations
people in 1991
• Apology from the Anglican Church to the
First Nations people in 1993
• Apology from Stephen Harper in 2008 for
the mistreatment of Aboriginal students in
residential schools
A screenshot of a video of Stephen Harper apologizing
to the First Nations People

26. Thank you for watching!