Residential School Abuse of First Nations’ Children
Perhaps the darkest part of our history as a country has been the treatment of aboriginal children who were forced to attend a residential school run by the churches on behalf of the Canadian government. Children were scooped away from their parents as young as 4 years old and often taken hundreds of miles away to a school where they were often physically, psychologically, culturally and even sexually abused. For some aboriginal families, this went on for 3 generations of more. The grandparents were raped as children, the parents were raped as children and then their children were raped as well – all at the same school.
This intergenerational trauma has had the most disastrous impact on the well being of all those affected – the children, the families and their communities. This impact extends out to the broader community as well as the white cultural that allowed this treatment of children to exist and continue for over 100 years also needs to reconcile what has happened here in Canada and what can be done to facilitate healing.
ChildGate has been involved in working with aboriginal survivors of residential school abuse for over 10 years. We have participated in, and helped fund, healing workshops and counselling for survivors.
ChildGate is committed to assisting First Nations’ survivors and to helping all Canadians become more aware of what transpired and what can be done to move forward with healing and reconciliation as recommended by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Towards that end, we have been endorsed by Perry Bellegarde, Nation Chief of the Assembly of First Nations as noted below: