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Canada's schools for indigenous people: "Our Alcatraz

2021-06-07T15:12:36.160Z


215 children's bodies were discovered near a Catholic boarding school in Kamloops, Canada. In schools like this, Indigenous children were exposed to violence and sexual abuse - including Raymond Tony Charlie.


SPIEGEL:

We spoke about "Indian Residential Schools" 18 years ago, the re-education schools for indigenous children.

Were you surprised by the gruesome news of the mass grave of the former boarding school?

Charlie:

I'm only surprised that you've heard of Kamloops even in Germany - the find isn't at all.

Children's bodies were also found on the premises of our school: two or three years ago a team from the University of British Columbia came with radar equipment and discovered 28 unmarked graves here.

But unfortunately there were so many other ways children could be made to disappear here.

When I got here at the school, the other boys told me: Often the bodies were also thrown into the large ovens that were used to burn the rubbish in the schools.

Former Senator Murray Sinclair has just said that it was common practice at many residential schools.

SPIEGEL:

When you came to Kuper Island Residential School in 1964, you were only 13 years old ...

Charlie:

... and only day students at first.

It only got really bad when I later had to stay overnight.

Enlarge image

Clarify the Canadians as a contemporary witness: Ray Tony Charlie

Photo: private

SPIEGEL:

Why did you have to go to school?

Charlie:

My mother had just died, my six siblings and I were taken in by my aunt and uncle here on Penelakut Island.

At first we all still fit in her little house, but as we got bigger it was too tight.

SPIEGEL:

Penelakut Island was still called Kuper Island back then, right?

Charlie:

We have always called the island Penelakut in our language.

But that is exactly what it was all about for centuries, also in these schools: to take away our language, our culture.

As early as the 17th and 18th centuries, Christian religious orders in Canada made the first attempts to force the children of the indigenous people into schools.

There they should learn English, be converted to the Christian faith, be made maids and workers.

In the late 19th century, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's official goal was "to assimilate the Indians."

Residential schools have been established across the country with the four predominant churches, the Anglican, Presbyterian and United Church, as well as the Catholic Church.

The Kuper Island Residential School accepted the first students in the summer of 1890;

it was led by nuns and priests of the Catholic Church.

SPIEGEL:

Did you grow up with your language?

Charlie:

Unfortunately not.

My mother and younger sister went to Kuper Island Residential School in the 1930s and were beaten by the nuns for not speaking English.

Only her older sister, with whom I grew up after my mother died, was out of school for some reason.

She spoke our language to us, Hul'q'umi'num ', for which I am very grateful today.

Only one and a half percent of our people speak it fluently, the language is almost extinct.

SPIEGEL:

Did people try to assimilate you with such force back in the 1960s?

Charlie:

Sure, that was why these schools existed.

I remember sitting outside with a couple of boys in our free time, we played drums and sang, the songs of our people.

Then a nun shouted at us: What we're doing here is the devil's stuff.

After that I never sang again until my psychotherapist said to me at the end of my therapy: Tony, someday I want to hear you sing again.

Now I can do it again.

And it feels so good.

SPIEGEL:

In our interview 18 years ago you told us why you had to do this therapy: It began when your wife Lorraine wondered why you couldn't sleep in the dark and why you always had to leave a night light on.

Charlie:

She'd asked a couple of times, we'd been married ten years.

But that evening in 1982, Lorraine persisted and was not satisfied with my empty phrases.

At some point I started talking.

That I was abused at school, in the dark, by one of the priests.

Later, in 2001, I testified against him together with other victims in court.

Social worker Sylvia Olsen researched the Kuper Island Residential School and suspects that around a third of girls and boys have been victims of sexual abuse.

Rumor has it that there was a secret cemetery on the premises for the killed newborn babies of girls who became pregnant through abuse.

SPIEGEL:

How old were you when that happened?

Charlie:

15.

SPIEGEL:

And nobody stood by your side?

Charlie:

Who is it?

There was no adult at these schools who would have sided with us children.

We were completely defenseless.

Offenders had ideal conditions: most of the children were not sent voluntarily by their parents, but by order of the Department of Indian Affairs, often under duress.

Most of the time they only came home during the summer vacation.

In old school reports there are many notes from the changing headmasters about parents who no longer wanted to send their children to school after the holidays, sometimes hiding with them.

And about children who tried to escape during the school year.

But Penelakut Island is a good seven kilometers from Vancouver Island;

some children drowned trying to escape.

more on the subject

Indian protest 1969: Escape to Alcatraz by Marc von Lüpke

Charlie:

With us children, the school was called "our Alcatraz".

There was no escape.

There were many reasons to want to escape: physical and sexual abuse like the one Tony had experienced.

Homesickness for parents.

The drill, the rigor, the loneliness.

And also: the danger of death.

In the first three decades of this school, around a third of its students died, mostly from tuberculosis - at school or soon after they returned home.

The reasons: poor nutrition, poor hygiene, overcrowded dormitories.

Neglect.

In 1939 there were even supposed to have been medical experiments at the school;

Students later reported that doctors gave them injections under the supervision of the school principal at the time.

Some children became seriously ill or even died afterwards.

Charlie:

Many more residential school students have died.

SPIEGEL:

What about?

Charlie:

Later in life: alcohol, drugs, poverty.

Her trauma.

I think that's one of the hardest things about getting older: I've lost so many friends.

Now I'm 70 years old - and one of the last left.

90, oh what, 95 percent of my friends are dead today. They should be here, enjoy their lives, play with their grandchildren.

That makes me very sad.

SPIEGEL:

You revealed yourself to your wife and gave your life a completely different direction.

What gave you the strength to do this?

Charlie:

The talking.

In the beginning I kept breaking down, I couldn't stop crying.

But at some point I said to myself: People should hear what I have to say, that's important.

I want you to understand why so many of us in Canada drink or use drugs.

What they did to us.

The system of residential schools lasted for a long time: in 1975 the Kuper Island School was closed, the last even in 1996, in Saskatchewan.

In 2008 Prime Minister Stephen Harper officially apologized;

The Anglican, Presbyterian and United Churches have officially admitted to the acts and apologized.

A formal apology from the Catholic Church is still pending.

SPIEGEL:

You often speak in front of school classes or at universities.

Do you have the impression that people all over the country are now recognizing how cruel this system was?

Charlie:

Oh, sometimes I get really racist sayings too.

But that doesn't scare me, I'm no longer silent.

And yes, many pupils or students come to me afterwards, want to continue talking, and hug me.

A school class has just merged and donated $ 155: I'm collecting to publish a book with my memories.

That touched me very much.

But it is even more important, I think, for my own people.

SPIEGEL:

To what extent?

Charlie:

It's only since we started talking that we understand what went wrong.

And we can decide to change something.

I have three grown sons whom I love very much.

But when they were little I never really knew how to hold them, how to even touch them.

I was always a little more distant from them than I actually wanted.

SPIEGEL:

Did you tell them about the abuse later?

Charlie:

Yeah, you know that.

And over time we've also found a lot of closeness, my wife Lorraine, the boys, my five grandchildren - that's my great happiness.

But do you know what happened now after those 215 children's bodies were found at the Kamloops school?

SPIEGEL:

Please tell us.

Charlie:

One of my sons went to Victoria, capital of British Columbia, to attend a memorial service for the victims. Then he called home in tears, my wife was on the line. And he asked her: "Tell papa, I love him."

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-06-07

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