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Residential Schoools in Canada - Education Guide

Residential schools were government-sponsored religious schools established to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian society. Successive Canadian governments used legislation to strip Indigenous peoples of basic human and legal rights, dignity and integrity, and to gain control over the peoples, their lands and natural rights and resources. The Indian Act, first introduced in 1876, gave the Canadian government license to control almost every aspect

of Indigenous peoples’ lives. The Act required children to attend residential schools, the majority of which operated after 1880.



Residential schools were originally created by Christian churches and the Canadian government. The goals of these schools were to ‘civilize’ Indigenous peoples by forcibly converting them to Christianity, and to integrate them into Canadian society through a process of cultural, social, educational, economic and political assimilation.



Residential schools were underfunded and overcrowded; they were rife with starvation, neglect, and physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, often including isolation from normal human contact and nurturing. Students were forcibly removed from their communities, homes and parents, and frequently forbidden to speak their Indigenous language and perform traditional music and dance. However, the experience of Survivors varied dramatically from school to school.



Residential schools caused immeasurable damage, disrupting lives, disturbing healthy communities and causing long-term problems.



The legacy of the schools has been to alienate generations of Indigenous peoples from their beliefs, traditions and lifestyles. The damages inflicted by these schools created intergenerational trauma that continues to affect Indigenous peoples across Canada today.

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