Explained: Why Pope Francis has apologised to Canada’s indigenous communities

What were these residential schools, and what happened here to make the Pope apologise? We explain.

The discovery of the graves

Till September last year, more than 1,300 unmarked graves were discovered on grounds where these Church-run schools once stood.

Around 150,000 Indigenous children in Canada were taken away from their families and forcefully sent to these schools where they endured abuse, both physical and sexual. These children were taken away from their communities and families to be “culturally assimilated”.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had in a statement in April, “Canada’s history will forever be stained by the tragic reality of the residential school system, which forcibly separated at least 150,000 Indigenous children from their families and communities, often at great distances, where they were prohibited from practising their culture and traditions, and speaking their languages…”

A woman sings Canada’s national anthem in the Cree language during a visit by Pope Francis, in Maskwacis, Alberta, Canada, July 25, 2022. (REUTERS)

A First Nation Indigenous group revealed last year that 215 bodies of children as young as three years were found at Kamloops Indian Residential School. In another discovery, almost a month later, revealed 751 unmarked graves, mostly of children, in the Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan. A week after this discovery, it was found out that 182 unmarked graves were present on the grounds of St. Eugene’s residential school in Cranbrook, which was opened in 1890.

In total, 4,117 deaths of children belonging to Indigenous communities were documented in the last year.

It has been reported that in these schools, children were beaten, forced to practise Christianity and not allowed to speak their native languages.

A report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up by the Canadian government states that more than 6,000 are estimated to have died because of the abuse by Church-run residential schools. The Commission had earlier sought an apology from the Church for its involvement in the torture of Indigenous children.

The Canadian bishops’ conference had apologised to the Indigenous community of the country in September last year when the graves of children were found.

Most of these residential schools operated between the 1880s and 1990s and were majorly run by Catholic churches.

The 2016 census by the Canadian government revealed that 1,673,785 Indigenous people were living in Canada. Out of this, 977,230 were First Nations people, 587,545 were Métis and 65,025 were Inuit. Indigenous people accounted for 4.9 per cent of the total population in 2016.

What was the residential school system and how it started?

In the 1880s, then Canadian prime minister John A. Macdonald had sought politician and journalist Nicholas Flood Davin to analyse schools set up for Indigenous children in the United States. Based on a report submitted by Davin, Macdonald had set up residential schools in Canada for Indigenous children.

Although the order to officially start these schools came in 1883, this isn’t when the residential school for Indigenous children came into being for the first time. As per the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, which was set up in 2008 by the Canadian government as a part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, “The first church-run Indian Residential School was opened in 1831.”

Mohawk Indian Residential School, which has been known to be the first residential school in Canada, started operating in 1813 in Brantford, Ontario.

Faithful gather to see Pope Francis after a meeting with indigenous peoples and members of the Parish Community of Sacred Heart in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, July 25, 2022. (REUTERS)

In 1876, The Indian Act was enacted that described who all came under Indigenous communities and established legal and land rights, among others, for Indigenous communities. It was under this act that children were taken away from their families and sent to institutions.

In 1883, Macdonald authorised the setting up of residential schools in western Canada. By the 1950s, residential schools had spread out all across Canada. Secretary of State for the Provinces Sir Hector Langevin had told the Parliament, “In order to educate the children properly we must separate them from their families. Some people may say this is hard, but if we want to civilize them we must do that.”

It has been found that at least 139 residential schools were operating between the 1800s and 1990s. In 1907, a medical inspector, Dr PH Bryce, had ruled that the health conditions of children in residential schools in Canada were a “national crime”.

Further in 1920, the Indian Act was amended to make the attendance of residential schools compulsory for children aged between 7 and 15. Even many cultural practices of the Indigenous community were banned under the act.

The schools are known to have been extremely overcrowded and even underfunded. Most of these heavily relied on funding from Churches.

Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which ran from 2008 to 2015, has said in a statement that these schools were “a systematic, government-sponsored attempt to destroy Aboriginal cultures and languages and to assimilate Aboriginal peoples so that they no longer existed as distinct peoples.”

Misty Omeasoo, from Sampson Cree First Nation and who says she is a survivor from St. Augustine school in Ponoka, reacts while waiting to see Pope Francis in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, July 25, 2022. (REUTERS)

The TRC has also said that the intention of the residential schools was to carry out cultural genocide. Children were punished in residential schools for speaking their own languages, the teachers were not held accountable for how they treated children and the level of education was below average.

A statement issued by the government of Canada, states, “During the years that the system was in place, children were forcibly removed from their homes and, at school, were often subjected to harsh discipline, malnutrition and starvation, poor healthcare, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, neglect, and the deliberate suppression of their cultures and languages. Thousands of children died while attending residential schools, and the burial sites of many remain unknown.”

Have the Indigenous communities been abused elsewhere?

An inquiry conducted by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in Australia has revealed that there was a forcible separation of Indigenous children – belonging to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities – between 1910 and 1970.

Last year, the Australian government had agreed to pay around $280 million to the survivors who had endured the abuse of the system.

According to another Human Rights report of 1997, similar to Canada’s residential schools, Australia’s abuse of Indigenous children was done in order to eliminate their identity and their culture.