Keeper'n Me

Content Warning: The source text discusses racism, colonialism, and death by suicide.

Canada’s historical treatment of Indigenous people hinged on policies of cultural erasure and assimilation into a Eurocentric society. In 1876, the Canadian state passed the Indian Act that consolidated colonial legislation, seeking to control Indigenous peoples and assimilate them into the mainstream. The act has had a long impact on First Nations, dismantling their social structure and governance, banning their cultural practices, and establishing the tribal reserves and the residential school system. Indigenous peoples gained citizenship in 1951. Despite historical amendments, the act remains a barrier to Indigenous rights.

Residential schools were established in the 1870s and had a lasting impact on Indigenous peoples. For years, children were removed from their families, forced to abandon their cultures, traditions, and their faith and were segregated by sex. In many schools, children were prohibited from speaking their Native languages and were given European names. The students were subjected to physical and sexual abuse. Conditions in schools, including malnutrition and starvation, made children vulnerable to diseases and led to increased deaths. The last residential school closed in 1996. The system is connected to the many cases of post-traumatic stress, alcohol and substance addictions, and death by suicide within Indigenous communities.