More than 500 children from 4 schools near the former site of the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School in Nova Scotia placed orange flags in the shape of a heart in honour of those who did not come home. APTN’s @angelharksen was there to capture this photo.
This is Truth and Reconciliation Week and each day we've been challenged to ask ourselves questions and seek answers which might deepen our understanding of the shameful history of Indigenous assimilation and genocide is what is known as Canada in which several denominations were complicit, including the United Church of Canada.
This question, above, from earlier in the week got me wondering about southern Ontario and the answer appears to be Brantford. Then I wondered about the number and locations of United Church Residential Schools (14 or 15, plus day schools) and proximity. One of the Day Schools was on the Alderville First Nation which is only an hour from Belleville. Bridge St. United Church, a congregation I served, had a strong connection with Alderville First Nation in the 19th century when it was still Methodist.
Most UCC Residential Schools were in western provinces but there was the Mount Elgin school on what is now the Chippewas of the Thames First Nation No. 42, in Muncey, roughly 30 kilometres southwest of London, Ontario. The land occupied by the school also bordered on the reserve of the Oneida Nation of the Thames, from which it leased several hundred acres of pasture land. Mount Elgin was also known as the Muncey Institute.
I have written about these residential institutions many times yet I have never researched where they were, specifically. They were real places where terrible things happened to Indigenous children, many of whom are still alive and live with memories which haunt them.
Here is a description of the United Church material called The Children Remembered: Residential Schools Archives Project and a link, if you're interested in learning more:l Archives Project
Since Canadian Confederation, it was the policy of the government of Canada to provide education to Indigenous peoples through a system of church-run residential schools. The schools were part of the federal government’s goal to assimilate Indigenous people into Canadian society. The Methodist and Presbyterian churches and, by 1925, The United Church of Canada explicitly supported the goals of assimilation and Christianization.
The United Church and its predecessors managed schools in Ontario and Western Canada – the number ranging from thirteen in 1927 to four in 1966. The United Church also ran a number of day schools in First Nations communities. By 1969, the federal government took over the management or closed all of the United Church residential schools. The residential school system brought harm and cultural dislocation to children by removing them from their families and communities.
Survivors began to recount their experiences of cultural, physical, psychological, and sexual abuse in United Church residential schools and brought legal action against the different bodies responsible for the schools. In response, the General Council of the United Church delivered an apology to the Native Congregations in 1986 and the Moderator of the United Church offered an apology in 1998. Since 2003, the United Church has worked with other denominations and Survivor groups to promote a national truth-telling and healing process. On June 2008, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established in Canada.
Mount Elgin Residential School, circa 1909. By the late 1800s, with enrolment at 86 students, overcrowding had become a major problem and the original school building (seen here behind the new four-storey residence) was in poor shape. In 1896, the Department of Indian Affairs, with funds appropriated from band accounts, constructed the new building in the foreground. UCCA, 1990.162P/1167.
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