This thesis arises out of a participant-observational study of narrative histories of people's experiences in Catholic residential schools in Saskatchewan. All the Elders interviewed are First Nations Anisinābē<sup>l</sup> people, most of whom live on five reserves north-west of Yorkton. All are recognized Elders<sup>2</sup>. The Elders have the common experience of having had at least one youth (or a young relative between the ages of ten to twenty-five years old) in their immediate families commit one of these acts of violence: murder, manslaughter, infanticide, or suicide. The Elders also had the shared personal experiences of being in residential schools.<p>
One research objective was to evaluate the influence of historical residential school experience upon subsequent attitudes to violence by youth in their family units. I formulated the study as an empirical test for a number of reasons: i) to examine a principal conclusion of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1996) that documented the high rate of suicide among Aboriginal youth is a consequence of psycho-social dysfunction arising out of the residential school experience; ii) to review government policies of colonalization that led to personal abuse of Aboriginal youth in parochial residential schools, abuses that have contributed to lasting social problems for Aboriginal peoples; and iii) to study the healing movement. A Government policy lead to personal abuse that lead to a social problem.<p>
The common theme that emerges out of the collective experiences of Elders is the common history of abuse suffered by Aboriginal students at parochial residential schools, the wholesale destruction of the Aboriginal family unit, and "social dysfunction" within the Aboriginal community caused by church and state for ideological and political objectives. My argument focuses on genocide and not justice issues, and it is framed by my own experiences as an Aboriginal woman who survived residential school.<p>
<b><sup>1</sup> Anisinābē means a beautiful people who are Saulteaux speaking people living in Saskatchewan whose ancestors signed Treaty Four.<p>
<sup>2</sup> All are recognized Elders in my mind. In my culture if you as a person, in this case myself, consider some person as an expert or as an Elder, who is to argue with me and say my opinion does not count. For example I chose a woman from my tribe and my clan to give me the correct spellings to the Saulteaux words I use in my thesis. In my culture you do not name yourself as an Elder, other people do that. Some Elders get widely known by many people, others are known as Elders in their immediate clans and tribes. Therefore in my thesis, they are Elders in my eyes because they have experiential wisdom.</b><p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:SSU.etd-06052008-100527 |
| Date | 29 September 2008 |
| Creators | Cote, Helen |
| Contributors | Schissel, Bernard |
| Publisher | University of Saskatchewan |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-06052008-100527/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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