Emergency At Attawapiskat

55 Replies to “Emergency At Attawapiskat”

1. Why isn’t the media interviewing non-Natives who’ve worked there? A friend of hubbys has narrated several stories that make your blood run cold, how can we save them when so many of them allegedly are devoid of humanity and compassion towards each other?

2. Oz @ 12:37: Nope. It’s the culture
   This is the oft-deployed response to the allegation that people, with their various attributes—intelligence, character, and so on—are largely responsible for their own plight. It’s the culture’s fault, we are assured, as though culture is some foreign object, thrust upon its people; as though something other than people are responsible for their culture.
   To adapt an over-used expression: It’s the people. Stupid. (No offense intended, Oz.)

3. Yeah, about those residential schools settlement cheques:
   A couple of years ago my uncle (in Sask) came across a native lady at a service station, buying tires, etc. with part of her settlement cheque. Uncle says to her, geez that must have been a terrible time for you, with all the abuse and all. Native lady says, heck no, they treated us like gold!! Sure had it better there than at home. a chuckle and a smile and off she went…
   I’m not saying there wasn’t any abuse, but this story is just one example of the ridiculous waste and handouts that have been commonplace since forever with natives.

4. Re your comment, Soccermom: Over 20 years ago, when the CBC was still allowing comments from both sides of the residential school issue, a Native woman said that she and her sister were really grateful to the residential schools for the education they got. She also said that in her home on the reservation, she and her sister were abused by various male family members, but at school, they were treated really well, had clean bed sheets, and three square meals a day — much better treatment than at home.
   It was shortly after these kinds of comments that the CBC seemed to put a lid on positive assessments of the residential schools and only allowed for negative ones. “Residential school abuse” has been a cash cow for too many Natives looking for easy money, with the CBC acting as cheerleaders for the historical skewing of residential schools.
   http://archives.cbc.ca/society/education/topics/692/
   Where real and actual abuse took place, the book should be thrown at the perpetrators. But, it’s been a scandal that so many teachers at these schools, who lived sacrificial lives in order to educate and nurture the Native children in their care, have been tarred and feathered for “abuse” that never happened.
   As for Native claims of having lost their culture, no one stopped their families from teaching them their culture; a little-known fact is that 80% of the Native chiefs at the time residential schools started asked the government to provide schools so that their children could learn English and live more successful lives. They recognized that there was very little future for their children if they stayed in isolated communities without learning English.
   The “story,” now, is that Native children and Native culture were abused when, in fact, Native leaders, themselves, were complicit in sending their children to residential schools, recognizing that they were unable to equip them for life in the broader North American context. I commend those Native leaders and feel very sorry that an inversion has taken place, blaming residential schools for widespread abuse of Native children when, in fact, in the majority of cases, residential schools educated and helped them.

5. @ batb
   So right. The so called culture they lost and the mistreatment they endured seemed to grow with every white lawyer that scrambled to get in on the action. Our tax money paid to have residential schools demonized by these ambulance chasers. The good intentions were all buried under the very few actual abuse cases and the dumbest thing the government ever did was to apologize as if every school was evil. Was stupid then and is stupid now.