Totem By Thomas King Sparknotes

Similar to Eve Tuck, Ramone McBride, a Pine Ridge author that wrote, “Our Native Children Are Not Poverty Porn: If One Succeeds, a Hundred Are Coming After,” aims to re-educate people on the way indigenous accomplishments are viewed. He states, “no longer should the public solely believe that Native kids are victims and that they don’t have a chance”. Instead, the public needs to reconsider the idea that hardship is the main part of the indigenous story and realize that there is also “beauty, hope and spirituality” in the mix (2). While McBride isn’t trying to force the idea that there is no dysfunction on tribal lands, he is trying to get the point across that the Native are powerful people who are able to retain hope and resilience even in the toughest of times. Instead of focusing on feeling sorry for the Native youth, the public instead needs to take time and use it to help cultivate the indigenous people’s talents and prepare them for the world and their future. The rest of this paper is going to address various questions through the strength-based lens of Eve Tuck and Ramone McBride in order to analyze and hopefully bring about change in regards to the way

Theodore Fontaine is one of the thousands of young aboriginal peoples who were subjected through the early Canadian system of the Indian residential schools, was physically tortured. Originally speaking Ojibwe, Theodore relates the encounters of a young man deprived of his culture and parents, who were taken away from him at the age of seven, during which he would no longer be free to choose what to say, how to say it, with whom to live and even what culture to embrace. Theodore would then spend the next twelve years undoing what had been done to him since birth, and the rest of his life attempting a reversal of his elementary education culture shock, traumatization, and indoctrination of ethnicity and Canadian supremacy. Out of these experiences, he wrote the “Broken Circle: The Dark Legacy of Indian Residential Schools-A Memoir” and in this review, I considered the Heritage House Publishing Company Ltd publication.

Totem poles are ceremonial statues that were carved by many of the tribes in the Pacific Northwest. The animals and figures on the totem poles represent the history of the family that lived in that house. The figures on the totems had specific meaning, and told of the family's heritage, power, and place in the

This is the first proof of the totem pole being given the identity of the ‘other’. Once the totem pole was discovered in the art gallery, it became a primary goal to remove it, and hide it away from the public. They found the noise it was making to be frustrating, and were bothered that it was not originally part of the gallery’s collection. It is to be believed that the totem pole portrays the indigenous history, within Canada. The workers at the gallery, are extremely committed to hiding away this totem pole, which in return can be referencing a sense of hiding, or burying away our country's history.

The Indigenous culture was viewed as inferior and unable to adequately provide for the needs of their children, which was fully fuelled by disproportionate poverty rates as well as the repercussion of residential schools (Russell, 2015). Due to not being able to maintain the standards of European child-rearing practices and common values, social services workers attempted to rescue these children from the conditions they were living in (O’Connor, 2010). These issues have detrimental effects on the families of survivors of the residential schools for generations, also known as multigenerational trauma. Instead of addressing this social policy concern the government was contributing and controlling it, where Indigenous people had little power to address

Since 1961 indigenous people have faced many historic issues. Many of the historic problems was an effort to destroy their cultures and change the way of their life, for example the residential schools. Thankfully many indigenous people are still living after all the harm that has taken place and we are continuing to make an effort for

When looking at the past, it is seen that residential schools have been one of the aspects that has led us to the place we are today regarding cultural appropriation. In addition, the effects of the sixties scoop on Aboriginal children in foster care impacts the overall scope of the situation (“Aboriginal youth in foster care,” 2017). Moreover, it is easy to illustrate the connection between this and the effects of the Manitoba Hydro Transmission Line, Bipole III. As one discovers the details of these subjects, the clarity of the relationship is unveiled and one is able to see the mistreatment and injustice that the Aboriginal peoples have had to face in the past and continue to endure in the

In the book Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson, the main character, Lisamarie, has to go through a series of traumatic events. However, these events play a crucial role in understanding the message of the novel. First Nations communities are still struggling with the aftermath of residential schools. This has led to a loss of culture. Lisamarie faces the death of many family members, and sexual assault which help her get in touch with her supernatural side. However, because she has grown up in a Haisla family that doesn’t practice a lot of its culture, she doesn’t know how to accept that part of herself. Several members of Lisamarie’s family attended residential schools which forces her to face intergenerational trauma. The author uses traumatic events that revolve around first nations communities to make the reader aware of the struggles that still affect first nation cultures.

In the haunting landscape of the film Bones of Crows, the scars of history are a deep wound in the lives of many Indigenous people. The film delves into the complexities of globalization, victims, and residential schools, confronting the stark reality of systemic oppression faced by Indigenous communities. At the heart of the movie lies the explicit theme of indigenous victimization, a theme that resonates with the intergenerational trauma caused by the legacy of residential schools. In Bones of Crows, we witness the protagonist’s journey as they navigate the haunting echoes of history, confront the oppressive forces of society, and ultimately, defy the established norms. First of all, the film follows a Cree family’s story of survival in

This shows that the museum is built around the totem pole and, therefore, the workers do not have ownership of the totem pole and the right to remove it. Walter Hooton, more often than any other worker, tries to get the totem pole out of the museum. His reason for removal of the totem pole is that, ““this totem pole is not part of the show, and we need to move it someplace else”” (King 14). This further demonstrates the dominating nature that the museum workers feel they have over the seemingly problematic totem pole. Rather than embracing the totem pole, the workers want to remove it as it does not fit into their vision of the rest of the exhibit. Coincidently, this is how the Canadian government treated the Indigenous people of Canada by trying to assimilate and potentially abolish them from our history. The museum workers believe they have dominance over the totem pole and with each attempt to destroy it, in time, it grows back stronger than the last. Another example of the controlling nature of the museum’s workers is that even though the basement of the museum was overcrowded it did not stop the workers from continuing to relocate the old totem poles in the storage room. This example is a parallel to how the Canadian government treated the Indigenous people when they were forcefully removed from their homes and relocated to inadequate housing often separated from their families. On their fourth attempt to rid the

After days, months, years of being physically and sexually abused, shamed, bullied, breaking ties with their families and having their identity stripped because they were “different”; let anxiety and depression start to get ahold of them. “Separated from their parents, they grew up knowing neither respect nor affection. A school system that mocked and suppressed their families’ cultures and traditions, destroyed their sense of self-worth.”(TRC Introduction). This introduces the idea of depression and anxiety beginning to unfold as words can not explain the pain and hurting they went through. “Children who had been bullied and abused, carried a burden of shame and anger for the rest of their lives. Overwhelmed by this legacy, many succumbed to despair and depression. Countless lives were lost to alcohol and drugs.”(TRC Introduction). There is no doubt that the Canadian government was racist towards the First Nation Peoples. The racism lead to the school system and the Survivors depression and anxiety. “The residential school environment was deeply racist. It presumed the intellectual inferiority of the children and it demeaned Aboriginal culture, language and parenting. The students were treated as if they were prisoners who required strict discipline simply because they were Aboriginal.”(TRC 227). Racism and the feeling of anger

For over a century, beginning in the mid1800s and continuing into the late 1990s, Aboriginal children in Canada were taken from their homes and communities, and were placed in institutions called residential schools. These schools were run by religious people in with the Canadian government and were attended by children as young as four years of age. These schools were all across Canada but sometimes very far from the children’s homes. Separated from their families and stopped from speaking their native languages and practicing their culture the majority of the 150,000 children who were sent to these schools experienced neglect and suffering.

“Even after these traumatic experiences at the residential schools, the effects of the schools have continued to influence Native populations for up to four generations” (Barnes & Cole. 2006, p. 29). Experiencing the traumatic events that took place while attending Residential School changed the children and this carries on to their extended families. Charlie Angus in Children of the Broken Treaty retells the stories of the children who had to live through the horrific trauma of attending Residential School which resulted in not only loss of their culture, but their own identity and native languages as well. The abuse and trauma these children faced should never have been put upon a

The legacy that residential schools left behind in Canada was not a positive one. Residential schools, up until the day that the last one closed in 1996, were supported and funded by the Canadian government. The aboriginals who attended these schools were treated unethically, and, as a result, the Aboriginals had many bitter feelings of resentment towards everyone else living in Canada. The immoral treatment of the First Nations people by the Canadian government severely impacted relations between Canadians and Aboriginals. The severe short and long term effects of the residential school system on Aboriginals in Canada, along with the fact that there was no apology for the government’s corrupt treatment of the First Nations people until mid-2008 taught Canadians about respect for foreign cultures and how to treat others equally.

Aboriginal children cannot forget what happened to them in the past. In 1870s, above 150 000 aboriginal children took from their parents to attend Canada’s Indian Residential Schools until 1970s (CBC News, 2010, p 49). The most goals for those schools learned aboriginal children the culture of European people (CBC News, 2010, p 49). Unfortunately, aboriginal parents have not choice even if they want to send their children to schools or not (CBC News, 2010, p 49). According to CBC News if aboriginal children tried to breakout from schools and coming again to their families, they will send back to their schools by Indian agents (2010, p 49). Moreover, there are negative aspects of Canada’s Residential Schools on aboriginal children, such as they beaten and physically abused if they speak their native language, do not pay attention in class, or there is no reason (CBC News, 2010, p 50). As a result, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) began in 2009, to gather information about what happened to aboriginal children on Canada’s Indian Residential Schools and share their stories with all Canadians (CBC News,2010, p 46). The TRC done enough for the survivors of the aboriginal children in Canada’s Residential Schools: collect a historical record, financial compensation, apology, the missing children, and recommendation.