How The Effects of The Residential Schools Pass To The Next Generation

So how does Social / Observational Learning explain the inter-generational effects of the Residential Schools? Simply by the fact we learn how to think and behave from those around us. The Residential Schools were so horrific they rivaled the deaths in the most notorious Nazi death camps. This continued, not for 10 years like the death camps, but for 50-60 years. And these crimes of humanity were committed on CHILDREN. The sheer amount of physical, mental, emotional and sexual abuse irrevocably destroyed all sense of self esteem in the victims. They then had classic Stockholm syndrome; they identified with and became like their captors... the victims became the victimizers. This is where the inner void was created and has been largely ignored due to modern society.

When they were released “Christianized and Assimilated” they felt immense guilt and hatred towards themselves because of the torture they endured. "In order to love someone else, you must first love yourself". With that in mind, is it possible to love fully when one’s heart and soul has been crushed beyond all recognition? Is it possible to enjoy life when one only knows hate, suffering and a deep longing for death? Is it possible to give our children something that has long since been destroyed within us?

Imagine trying to give the best to your children only to fail because you haven't learned anything else. That alone is more painful than the abuse endured in those schools, for both the parents and their children. The only escape then is found in drugs, alcohol and government handouts.

What most people don't understand is the kinds of lives most Aboriginals live as the result of the Residential Schools. They don't see the 250 teens in the remote community of Kugluktuk (population 1,300) who committed suicide in the past 5 years. Their story can be found here, the second part here, and the third here.

But most of Aboriginal's reality is hidden. No one talks about the 13 year old girls forced to prostitute. The kids who have to see their moms, brothers and sisters beaten sometimes on a daily basis. The teens who are killing themselves by inhaling solvents just to escape these painful realities. Or even the elders who desperately want their grand-children to have a better life but can't seem to reach them and stop them from destroying themselves.

This is how these effects are transferred to the next generation. Parents want nothing more than for their children to be happy. But since we've lost those tribal ways of parenting and have had them replaced with pain, anger and depression, we are unable to give our children something that was taken from us. The inner void continues in the next generation and society just looks down on us, pointing fingers at our suffering as if we chose these lives.

I look with pride at the strength of our people. Who, in all our suffering, still continue to fight for salvation, enduring an untold amount of pain that permeates virtually every single Aboriginal family across North America. I look with faith, that when we are shown the path to true happiness and fulfillment, we would rise up as one and demand justice for the blood of past generations and, not just for us, but for the future of the world's coming generations. I believe this because I know we aren’t ‘just a bunch of lazy alcoholics’.