Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, is visiting Canada this week to apologize to indigenous communities for the Church’s role in Canadian residential schools. This visit comes after indigenous leaders and politicians have been asking for an apology for years.
Canada’s residential schools were active between the 1880s and 1990s, and these schools were meant to separate indigenous children from their families and indoctrinate them with Western customs. The Canadian government forced more than 150,000 indigenous into these schools. Many died from disease and malnutrition and many others faced abuse. Even today, historians don’t know the exact number of deaths in these schools, but most put the estimate at more than 10,000.
The Catholic Church ran 60-70% of the more than 130 residential schools under contract to the government. The rest were run by the Canadian government, Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and United churches. The Catholic Church are one of the last organizations related to these schools to apologize, as the Canadian government formally apologized 14 years ago, and the Protestant Churches have as well.
Some indigenous leaders say that this is a great step towards the reconciliation of indigenous people and the Canadian government. “Many of us have had thoughts about the Catholic Church for a long time and this particular moment may sweep aside these doubts that have been there. To make it all work, you have to be able to forgive, and that means you have to make peace with the church.” said Phil Fontaine, the former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations. He was one of the first Indigenous leaders to publicly describe the abuse he suffered at Catholic-run residential schools.
Others, mostly younger indigenous people, disagree. “I don’t care about the pope, I’m very critical about the pope visit,” said Riley Yesno, 23, who is from Eabametoong First Nation in Ontario. “And I say that as somebody whose grandparents went to Catholic-run residential schools. I don’t see how any of these words that he’s going to say will actually fix the damage that the residential schools caused. I don’t know that it’ll bring healing for my grandparents.”
Instead, they want to Canadian government to act. Indigenous people in Canada only have 8% of the land that they had before contact with European settlers. Indigenous communities want the Canadian government to return the land stolen from them years ago. They also want political autonomy over that land, and financial reparations. “We’re more concerned with material transactions and material reparations,” Yesno said.
Source:
– https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/24/world/canada/pope-francis-apology-canada-indigenous.html
Canada’s residential schools were active between the 1880s and 1990s, and these schools were meant to separate indigenous children from their families and indoctrinate them with Western customs. The Canadian government forced more than 150,000 indigenous into these schools. Many died from disease and malnutrition and many others faced abuse. Even today, historians don’t know the exact number of deaths in these schools, but most put the estimate at more than 10,000.
The Catholic Church ran 60-70% of the more than 130 residential schools under contract to the government. The rest were run by the Canadian government, Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and United churches. The Catholic Church are one of the last organizations related to these schools to apologize, as the Canadian government formally apologized 14 years ago, and the Protestant Churches have as well.
Some indigenous leaders say that this is a great step towards the reconciliation of indigenous people and the Canadian government. “Many of us have had thoughts about the Catholic Church for a long time and this particular moment may sweep aside these doubts that have been there. To make it all work, you have to be able to forgive, and that means you have to make peace with the church.” said Phil Fontaine, the former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations. He was one of the first Indigenous leaders to publicly describe the abuse he suffered at Catholic-run residential schools.
Others, mostly younger indigenous people, disagree. “I don’t care about the pope, I’m very critical about the pope visit,” said Riley Yesno, 23, who is from Eabametoong First Nation in Ontario. “And I say that as somebody whose grandparents went to Catholic-run residential schools. I don’t see how any of these words that he’s going to say will actually fix the damage that the residential schools caused. I don’t know that it’ll bring healing for my grandparents.”
Instead, they want to Canadian government to act. Indigenous people in Canada only have 8% of the land that they had before contact with European settlers. Indigenous communities want the Canadian government to return the land stolen from them years ago. They also want political autonomy over that land, and financial reparations. “We’re more concerned with material transactions and material reparations,” Yesno said.
Source:
– https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/24/world/canada/pope-francis-apology-canada-indigenous.html
